Sometimes friends make the best of rivals and in the case between Adrien Broner and Adrian Granados, that statement rang true.
In Broner?s first fight since his emotional troubles surfaced last year, Broner defeated a razor sharp close fight against Granados in a 10-round main event on Showtime Championship Boxing via split decision (97-93 Granados, 97-93 Broner, 96-94 Broner) in Broner?s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Two of the judges already had each fighter way ahead in their respective cards, but judge Robert Pope had the fight in favor of Broner 86-85 heading into the final round. Had Granados won the 10th round on Pope's scorecard, the fight would have ended in a draw.
Granados was Broner?s training partner and earlier in the week, a mutual friend of the two died, putting an emotional strain on the fight for both boxers.
Granados began the fight dominating Broner in the first two rounds, but Broner bounced back and the two battled back and forth through the entire fight with no clear winner. Broner said in the post-fight interview he hurt his left hand in the first round, causing him to change his gameplan mid-fight.
The split decision loss by Granados follows a trend throughout his career. All seven fights that Granados had competed and not won either was a close decision loss or a draw and this latest result was yet another case of Granados not being given a fair shake, according to him. In the post-fight interview, he refused to say that the judging was fair and said he could beat anybody out there and that the extremely close fight warranted a rematch in Granados? hometown of Chicago.
?I understand, I don?t have the perfect record,? Granados said. ?Y?all can talk about the losses, but I know I can beat any of these guys. Come on man, you guys have seen the scorecards [in his fights that he did not win], split decision, give me another one. Let?s do it again. Come to my house.?
There had been several issues leading up to the fight including a sudden weight change with only weeks remaining in the fight. The fight was originally scheduled for a 142-pound catchweight bout, but was later changed to a regular welterweight fight, where the weight limit is 147 pounds.
Peterson said in the interview he wanted to become a better role model and will take his career more seriously. No plans for are set for Broner in terms of his next opponent or whether or not he will decide to make another run at another welterweight world title or return to junior welterweight. Broner was the WBA ?super? junior welterweight from 2015-16 before being stripped off the title for missing weight in his April 2016 defense against Ashley Theophane.