By JEREMY MYRTHIL
Seated at a crowded table were a pair of boxers trending in different directions. One, Jesse Vargas, pursued fame and fortune and heightened recognition after a unanimous victory; the other, Adrien Broner, came off a doleful defeat and hoped to regain relevance in the sport he loved.
The much-anticipated bout between former welterweight world champion Vargas and four-division champion Broner was slated to headline Saturday night’s slugfest at Barclays Center, but verbal blows were traded at the preceding press conference Thursday when the two were brought before the media.
Dressed in a pinstriped charcoal three-piece suit and smiling in front of the audience, Vargas approached the microphone with confidence, as he came off a victory by unanimous decision over Aaron Herrera in December. Defeating Broner on Saturday, boasted Vargas, would put him on the same pedestal as some of the most highly-regarded boxers of this generation.
The 28-year old “pride of Las Vegas” found himself facing Broner after former champion Omar Figueroa suffered a shoulder injury in-training that forced him to withdraw from his previously scheduled showdown against Broner.
“I can’t wait!” said Vargas, as sought eye contact with Broner. “We got a couple days away, and I can’t wait. This isn’t a game.”
Vargas said he was the “taller” and “stronger” fighter and called his opponent “beatable.”
“At the end of the day, there can only be one winner,” Vargas said, before speaking Spanish to thank promoters of the fight. “And I plan to be that winner.”
Broner previously boxed at Barclays Center in July, losing a unanimous decision to Mikey Garcia after previously defeating Adrian Granados earlier in the year.
Returning to Barclays for the first time since his pivotal loss, Broner’s opening remarks weren’t verbal: he took off the Beats headphones he had been wearing throughout the press conference and wafsted them over the microphone as Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” blared through the speakers.
Wearing a grey and orange crew neck sweater with matching jogger pants, Broner’s approach – as well as his wardrobe – at the podium was in stark contrast to Vargas’s, as the 28-year old Cincinnatti native bombarded both his opponent and the promoters.
“This a fake-ass press conference,” said Broner. ““This garbage.”
He went on to insult Vargas in Spanish and added: “When you stepped up and you fought Timothy Bradley, you lost. When you stepped up and you fought Pacquiao, you lost. You ain’t them. You gotta beat me first.”
He also spewed vitriol toward the promoters, suggesting that they favored Vargas.
“They want AB to go out,” Broner said, “They don’t want me in nice cars. They don’t want me in Rolexes. They don’t want me to be in AP’s. They don’t want me to be in private jets. They want me to lose this fight, go under the rug, and never be talked about again.”
In a Q&A following the press conference, he said that ring fans were “going to see a helluva Adrian Broner” Saturday night, and that he wants his children to know that he’s going to do “everything” he can to provide for them.
“I’m gonna shake the world up,” Broner added. “My confidence is at a different level.”
Broner won the verbal bout by a unanimous decision. The winner in the ring with gloves on remained a question mark.
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