Boxer Broner a sad joker whistling in the wind

Broner

Former world champion Adrien Broner is the saddest type of sportsmen of them all – a desperate wannabe without the goods.

On Saturday he brought his low-level shtick to Las Vegas, only to get rolled over by Shawn Porter. He was barely in the fight, preferring the practised pout and pose over punching.

Broner has long styled himself on Floyd Mayweather jnr, but whereas Mayweather can back up his boasts, Broner is a cheap, sad imitation with neither the talent nor the class to pull it off.

His latest stunt was to pose bad-ass style with a gun and diss his sport on social media. The problem for Broner is that he’s not accomplished enough for people to take him seriously. And he’s not likeable enough for people to be concerned with his antics. He comes across as stupid and narcissistic.

The big problem for Broner is that he has a helluva mountain to climb if he is to regain his reputation as the next big thing after Mayweather. For a while he looked like he may be the heir apparent, but after the hiding he took from Marcos Maidana and now Porter, he’s at the back of the queue. It’s arguable whether he is even among the top 10 welterweights around with Mayweather, Kell Brook, Keith Thurman, Porter and Maidana all way ahead of him. His pulling power has taken a big knock and he shouldn’t be surprised that fans are no longer excited by him.

You would think his defeats would have taught him some humility. Bizarrely, his ego is more out of control than ever.

The trouble for him is that he’s become irrelevant, another sad joker whistling in the wind.

He won’t be missed.