Spike and Premier Boxing Champions shows up on the schedule after a nice little hiatus with a title fight. Adrien Broner (31-2, 23 KOs) takes on Ashley Theophane (39-6-1, 11 KOs) for the vacant WBA World Super Lightweight Title in Washington D.C.
The primary undercard is undefeated Robert Easter Jr. (16-0, 13 KOs) taking on Algenes Mendez (23-3-1, 12 KOs). Spike has set aside two and a half hours for boxing, so we’ll likely open with Anthony Peterson (36-1, 24 KOs) takes on Samuel Neequaye (22-1, 15 KOs).
Scroll on down for the live blog. Keep reading for the press release from PBC.
Before he started preparing to face Ashley Theophane on April 1 at the DC Armory in the nation’s capital (Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET/PT), Adrien Broner was assembling a stable of Cincinnati-area talent for his About Billions record label. It paid dividends in December when Broner signed the label to Rick Ross’s Maybach Music Group, an imprint of Atlantic Records that’s home to the likes of Wale, Meek Mill and French Montana.
About Billions dropped the About Time mixtape, featuring Dae Wun, Big Bern, Young Butta, B. Luck, Prince Bopp and K.I.D. earlier this month.
“We got MMG on our side,” Broner says. “Rick Ross, he’s definitely on our side. He’s helping us promote and get the brand out there. He comes around, and he’s going to help me get some corporate money.
“We just dropped a hell of a mixtape on [the app] MyMixTapez called About Time. We doing big things. Right now, the big focus is this fight April 1.”
It’s not just about the record label, though. Broner just launched an About Billions app for iOS that spotlights everything from his fight schedule and ticket information to his lifestyle documentary About Billions webisodes.
It’s no secret that these are just pieces of the puzzle when it comes to Broner’s brand-building. While his side businesses take a back seat to fighting, they’re never completely out of mind, even during camp. If anything, business life gives Broner a chance to engage a side of his personality that the fight game has no room for.
“Boxing is boxing and business is business,” Broner says. “When it pertains to boxing you’ve got to focus and think about 12 rounds and be in shape. But when it pertains to business, you have to stay level-headed. There are certain things you have to do to promote a fight. There are certain things you can say and can’t say. With me, I’m always in a no-censor zone. I’ll always be me.”
Since turning pro in late 2012, Robert Easter Jr. has proven that he’s a very skilled fighter who packs a wallop of a power punch. Just one small issue: He’s proven it against wildly overmatched competition.
Easter, who was an alternate on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, is coming off a spectacular 2015 in which he stopped all four of his opponents, each of whom had at least 28 career fights under his belt. In a span of less than eight months, Easter dusted Alejandro Rodriguez (second-round TKO, March 7); Miguel Angel Mendoza (second-round KO, June 20); Osumanu Akaba (sixth-round TKO, August 28); and Juan Ramon Solis (third-round TKO, October 3).
The fight is on Spike TV at 9 p.m. Watch faces get pummeled into hamburger with me.
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