Three Potential Opponents for Adrien Broner Should the Former Welterweight Champion Get Back in the Ring
The name Adrien Broner is once again being discussed in boxing circles, albeit not the ones he’s usually accustomed to. The former four-weight world champion has suddenly shot to popularity on the popular streaming platform Kick as he talks boxing at 2 a.m. to an audience that mostly knows him from “Crash Out Boyz” streams with DeenTheGreat, not from his Showtime pay-per-view days.
The partnership with Deen started in early 2026 and quickly became something bigger than either man’s solo channel — marathon IRL broadcasts, warehouse lock-ins, crossovers with other Kick names like N3on, including a stretch where Broner turned trainer and put N3on through actual boxing drills on camera. Somewhere in there, Broner became something of a lovable character, a man clearly hurting but also accepting of just how much his once brightly shining star has now dimmed.
The Rise
Make no mistake, AB’s star did once shine bright. Incredibly so, despite his brash and occasionally repulsive persona.
By 21, he was the WBO super featherweight champion, and he duly added the WBC lightweight strap to his collection a year later with a brutal stoppage of Antonio DeMarco in Atlantic City. By 2013, he’d jumped up to welterweight and embarked upon a bitter war of words with then WBA champion Paulie Malignaggi, a feud which resulted in Broner taking the coveted title away from the Magic Man via a razor-thin split decision at a sold-out Barclays Center. Two years after that, stopping Khabib Allakhverdiev made him a four-division champion at 26 — the second-youngest in history, behind only Oscar De La Hoya.
But all good things do come to an end. In his first defense of the WBA welterweight title he’d claimed for Malignaggi, the 27-0 Broner geared up for a seemingly routine title defense against heavy betting underdog Marcos Maidana. The boxing lines on fight night listed the unbeaten champion as a mightily short -400 favorite to extend his record to 28-0 and defend the strap. Then, the Argentinian slugger dropped him twice and shockingly took the title back to Buenos Aires in arguably the biggest upset of the year.
The Fall
El Chino would go on to make a lot of money in back-to-back fights with Floyd Mayweather. But while the new champion’s stature grew exponentially, Broner endured the exact opposite, with the wheels coming off what was shaping up to be a Hall of Fame-worthy career. Shawn Porter beat him in 2015; the much smaller Mikey Garcia did the same in 2017, as did all-time great Manny Pacquiao in 2019.
And in June 2024 came the nail in the coffin. The unheralded Blair Cobbs put Broner on the canvas, knocked out a tooth, and cruised to a wide decision win that felt like the end. And for two years, it was. But now, with popularity surging and Broner surprisingly becoming somewhat beloved by younger fans for his vulnerability shown on stream, could a return to the ring be on the cards? Well, if it is, these are the three names that potentially make the most sense (and the most dollars) for a returning Adrien Broner.
Marcos Maidana Rematch
Maidana retired in 2014 after back-to-back money spinners with Mayweather. In the first of them, El Chino gave a good account of himself, albeit nowhere near good enough to warrant a score of 114-114 on Michael Pernick’s scorecard. In the second, Floyd left no doubt as he schooled the Argentine en route to a wide unanimous decision win, and Maidana has been laughing all the way to the bank ever since.
He has flirted with comebacks in the years since, and a lucrative three-fight deal with PBC was scrapped in 2019 when Maidana simply lost the hunger to keep cutting weight. But in the world of crossover boxing, 12 years out of the ring means nothing, and a rematch between the two former welterweight champions could well come to fruition should both want and clamor for it.
There can be no denying that something died inside Broner that night in San Antonio 13 years ago, when Maidana took his perfect record and indeed part of his soul. That could well answer why AB continues to bring up rematch talks unprompted on Kick. Nostalgia sells, and a rematch between the two would indeed generate Broner some much-needed cash, but Maidana hasn’t fought in over a decade, and whether he’s willing to get out of his silk sheets for one last war remains unknown.
Blair Cobbs Rematch
If the defeat to Maidana was the beginning of the end, the loss to Cobbs 11 years later was the end, period. The unknown welterweight made a statement when he brutalized AB for 10 rounds, with the second-round knockdown and wide unanimous verdict signaling the end of Broner as a serious threat within the 147-pound division.
But Cobbs has fought just once in the two years since that win, stopping Andres Sanchez Ramirez last November. His scheduled return against unbeaten Brit Elliot Whale collapsed when Cobbs was ruled unfit to fight at the weigh-in, leaving him unable to capitalize on his signature win. Boxing media has widely framed a rematch as the only way for Broner to prove his renewed commitment is real, and unlike the other two names here, there’s genuine shared history and no logistical fantasy required.
Jake Paul
Broner’s social media call-outs of Jake Paul — loud, profane, and repeated — have generated headlines without generating a contract. Paul, now 12-2 after a brave but brutal sixth-round stoppage loss to former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua last December that left him with a broken jaw and months of recovery, has bigger fish on his mind: a possible Canelo Alvarez blockbuster, a long-simmering Tommy Fury rematch, or a KSI crossover fight, all of which dwarf whatever Broner could bring to a promotional table.
Still, the Problem Child has shown a willingness to entertain the circus-like fights. In fact, he has made a career out of it. A pushing-60 version of Mike Tyson, a stunning move up in weight to challenge Anthony Joshua, and even a signed contract to fight the much smaller lightweight world champion, Gervonta David. If he feels like a fight against Broner would be the maximum reward for the minimal risk, then Paul may well entertain the idea.
