ATLANTIC CITY — Adrien Broner clearly is sitting pretty after a big win over Antonio DeMarco Saturday night. But this pretty?
"If the press isn't ready, I will crown him the next Floyd Mayweather," DeMarco's promoter Gary Shaw said at the post-fight press conference.
Later, Broner's promoter Oscar De La Hoya upped the ante. "He's Mayweather, (Bernard) Hopkins, and myself," De La Hoya said, "all wrapped up into one."
It's a bit too early to go that far, in my view, as impressive as the performance was and as much as Broner has the look of "the future of boxing" about him. But Broner, making a magnificent entry into the lightweight ranks, said he was thinking of a couple people at 135 pounds: Ricky Burns (De La Hoya: "It's very possible. That fight has already been discussed") and Juan Manuel Marquez.
Broner was in quite the quipping mood, and naturally he insists it's all spontaneous. On what weight he can make, since De La Hoya projected him as a possible 154-pounder: "I don't lose. I don't even like losing weight." On his place in boxing: "What can I say after a performance like that? That I'm good? No, I can't say that. That I'm great? No, I can't say that. No, I'm elite." On DeMarco: "He's a warrior. He's looking for a war. Well… he tried."
Some of the other fighters from Saturday had some pertinent thoughts after the fight, too, and the promoters had a few more things to say. Here are some highlights:
DeMarco: "I'm a very brave guy. I will come back with more hunger, I promise you."
(getting choked up) "I want to show my daughter that dreams can come true."
Shaw said it wasn't clear if DeMarco would move up to 140 pounds or stay at 135. He praised DeMarco's effort and character, called him "the Mexican Arturo Gatti," and said he knew DeMarco would come back just like he did after the loss to Edwin Valero.
DeMarco trainer Romulo Quirarte on the stoppage: "He was not winning the fight. The same thing happend with Valero. This is how you make a career last longer."
De La Hoya said there were 4,200 people in attendance and 3,800 tickets were sold.
Heavyweight Johnathon Banks, who beat Seth Mitchell: "My whole thing was speed… I felt like if I was fast enough, I could do anything I wanted to do." He said avenging his loss to Tomasz Adamek was on "on my radar."
Mitchell: "I saw that I touched him and that my power was getting to him. I got a little reckless in the 2nd round."
