Was it a Mismatch?

Last night’s fight between Adrien “The Problem” Broner and Vicente Escobedo served the purpose of showing what the opposing sides of the class spectrum look like, and little else. The bout–which came perilously close to being canceled on account of “The Problem” failing to make weight for both the official weigh-in on Friday and for a morning-after weight cap–cannot be labelled a farce based on the events that transpired throughout Saturday afternoon, but under any other set of circumstances, that is exactly what it would have been called.  Broner scaled 133.5 at the official weigh-in, losing his WBO super featherweight trinket by failing to show up at the division limit of 130. Team Escobedo, conscious of the danger an oversized Broner would represent, but also trying to save the fight from being cancelled, agreed for Escobedo to meet Broner inside the ring as long as the champion didn’t rehydrate to over 140 pounds on Saturday morning. But come Saturday morning, Broner would once again miss the mark, this time by 3 pounds.  That Broner didn’t even come close to staying within the limits on both occasions illustrates the fact that he never intended to put his body through the stress of trying to make weight. By the time the second weigh-in was done, Adrien’s actions had betrayed not only lack of professionalism, but also an impudent shamelessness rooted in a sense of entitlement we usually associate with Wall Street bankers. But it was at this point that Broner decided to take things to the next level.