Adrien Broner made his return to the ring for the first time since 2019 and losing to Manny Pacquiao. Broner faced the unbeaten Puerto Rican Jovanie Santiago last night and won by unanimous decision.
Although Broner did deserve the decision, Santiago took the fight to him and kept being aggressive for the entirety of the fight. Santiago’s pressure and willingness to eat some shots to land his own made the fight more competitive than most experts had predicted.
This was Broner’s first win since his controversial split decision victory over Adrian Granados in 2017. He was supposed to face the Mexican Pedro Campa (31-1-1) but Campa contracted Covid-19 and had to withdraw from the bout.
Santiago replaced Campa and agreed to move the weight limit from the junior welterweight’s limit of 140lbs to the welterweight limit of 147lbs to accommodate Broner.
Broner praised Santiago during the post-fight press conference but didn’t think the fight was close.
“Until I go home and look at my performance, you know, then I can say. But it felt good. I felt like I lost probably three rounds. But you know, other than that I beat him easy off the jab. And I was countering him pretty good, and I was doing my thing. I was having fun, I had to use my jab and get him to open up, and that’s when I was able to counter punch.”
Broner will now look to get back to form and maybe contend for a title in the near future, but his time as an elite fighter may be over.
