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ADRIEN BRONER'S BAD BUSINESS OF BEING BAD

By Paul Magno | May 24, 2018
ADRIEN BRONER'S BAD BUSINESS OF BEING BAD

Adrien Broner is certainly a compelling character and, most of the time, a compelling fighter. What he isn't, though, is a shrewd businessman -- and he most definitely is not the least bit self-aware when it comes to who he is and how much he's currently worth as a prizefighter. 

Via Broner's verified social media accounts, the four-division former world champ revealed that he had turned down a 3-fight, $6.75 million deal from Matchroom Sport's bossman Eddie Hearn, who is pushing to sign a stable of top notch draws for his new big-money streaming deal.

"I’m sorry @eddiehearn you a good guy and all but you tried to give me a worst deal than @rocnation offered me #TheShitIsOVA#SlaveDeal," the Cincinnati native wrote. 

Those interested enough to care at the time will recall that Roc Nation Sports offered Broner an incomprehensible 5-year, $40 million deal that would've seen the fighter make more than four times more, per fight, than he had ever made before. 

This time around, Hearn's offer would've doubled Broner's pay scale with a September 2018 bout delivering $2 million, a March 2019 fight delivering $2.25 million, and a September 2019 contest paying out $2.5 million. For context, Broner has made a flat million dollars for each of his last five fights with his career-high purse being $1.75 million for the Marcos Maidana clash in 2013.

There are degrees of "slave deals" -- of that there is no doubt -- and one could even argue that any deal where you are not your own man, controlling all of your own money is a "slave deal," but a practical realist might disagree. 

Unless someone is willing to put in the effort to professionally emancipate himself by becoming his own promoter, he is going to be bound by what is offered to him by the boxing powerbrokers. And being one's own promoter isn't just about becoming the figurehead of a pretend promotional company that still relies on others to hammer out all the business details. Broner may be the president of "About Billions Promotions," but he's most definitely not putting in the work to become a free man in a business that leans on indentured servitude. 

Broner's non-efforts in taking his promotional company seriously (he only just recently had actual content placed on the company website) means that he's leaving himself to the whims and boundaries of the boxing business. 

Most likely, Broner's rejection of the Hearn offer has to do with knowing Hearn has a potential billion in the coffer. He wants a bigger cut of the total take and there may be a few people holding out on signing with Hearn for that same reason. If releasing the potential budget for the Hearn project was done intentionally, it was a mistake that may make for some tough upcoming negotiations from those who know that the money is there to demand two or three times whatever is being offered to them.

In the particular case of Broner, there's a bit more to rejecting Hearn's offer than simply holding out for more money. It could be that ego compelled him to turn Hearn down, just like it seemingly compelled him to rudely turn away a $4 million per-fight offer from Roc Nation because, apparently, a pretend beef with Jay Z was of more value to his public image than a quadrupling of his real world earnings. 

This leaning on ego over logic may come back to bite "The Problem" as he ages and continues to fail at ascending to elite-level. The business will dictate that he face younger and hungrier fighters for his standard million dollar purse and he will have to fight harder to simply stay afloat. 

At some point, things will come crashing down and the paydays will become smaller for tougher tasks. It's an older than old boxing story that very rarely ends in a positive for the fighter. The business is built on demanding the life of its athletes...and then pulling back the money when the fighter begins to falter. Most fighters don't experience happy endings, winding up broke and broken with the entire second half of their lives still to be lived. 

If things play out true to form, Adrien Broner will probably regret many, many decisions made over the last few years.

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