Sherdog Boxing: The Weekly Wrap

Broner manages to offend Asians and black people at the same time impressive pic.twitter.com/FzAO591EuO

— Robert Littal (@BSO) November 20, 2018

Freddie Roach and Manny Pacquiao Reunite for Broner Fight

With Broner-Pacquiao made official, Manny Pacquiao is reaching out to an old friend for help. Pacquiao and longtime trainer Freddie Roach apparently buried the hatchet person-to-person this week, leading Roach to declare, “Manny reached out directly, we sat together one-on-one. I’ll be in his corner Jan. 19.” There’s no question that Pacquiao was at his best under the tutelage of Roach; however, it is unlikely that by bringing in his old trainer, Pacquiao will suddenly look like the old Manny Pacquiao. Either way, between this fight and his work with Tyson Fury, Freddie Roach will be involved in two of the biggest fights of the year after looking like his prominence in the sport was fading.

Broner Makes Awkward Racial Jokes about Pacquiao and Parkinson’s Joke about Roach, Pacquiao Calls Broner Fat

In his somehow still ongoing quest to be the poor man’s Floyd Mayweather, Adrien Broner opted to make some racist jokes at Manny Pacquiao. While Floyd famously said that Manny should be making him a sushi roll, Broner made some uncomfortable jokes about Bill Cosby’s knockout ability before saying that Manny Pacquiao had a better chance of becoming a driving instructor than beating him. Yikes.

Pacquiao responded with the typical boxing lines about letting his fists do the talking, but poked fun at Broner on twitter saying that this Thanksgiving Adrien Broner should lay off the stuffing, a shot at Broner’s tendency to gain weight when not in camp. Broner’s joke wasn’t especially cruel, just uncomfortable in its lack of cultural awareness. Broner left his cruel material for Freddie Roach, about whom “About Billions” said he was happy because “we can get this thing shakin” a not-so-subtle reference to Roach’s tremors brought on by Parkinson’s Disease. Double yikes.

Gervonta Davis to Fight Abner Mares on Feb. 9

One of Broner’s best friends, Gervonta “Tank” Davis announced this week that he will be fighting Abner Mares on Feb. 9 in a fight expected to be aired on Showtime. Mares will be moving up from featherweight to junior lightweight for the fight, his first since losing his WBA title to Leo Santa Cruz this June. Despite being smaller than “tank” Mares has claimed in the past that he will be able to walk down Davis. And in February, we’ll see if he can.

Sergio Martinez Still Talking Comeback, De La Hoya Thinks He Can Still Fight Too

This week while promoting the third fight between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, Oscar De La Hoya said, “Right now, if I train a couple months, three months, I can go 10 rounds. I can go in there with the best. That would be no problem, but I would have to be disciplined and dedicated and just focused on it 1000 percent and it would be no problem. Why limit yourself to age?”

Hopefully this is just De La Hoya trying to drum up publicity for the Liddell-Ortiz fight and prematurely block criticisms that the two combatants are too old to be fighting, because there is no way he could still compete against any high-level boxer at this point in life. I mean, two years ago he looked exhausted in the ring against AC Slater.

But, who knows? This week, Sergio Martinez announced that despite his rematch against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. falling through, he is still looking to come back to boxing. Apparently, Martinez attempted a career in movies, and tried to become a playwright (seriously), but found that nothing satisfied him like his boxing career had. One possible opponent that has expressed a desire to face “Maravilla” is Darren Barker. The 36-year-old from London has been retired since 2014, but said this week that if he came back it would be to face Sergio Martinez, the man who stopped him back in 2011. Although no fights make sense for Sergio Martinez at this point in his life, this one would be the closest.

Bryant Jennings and Shakur Stevenson to Fight on Jan. 18 ESPN+ Card

ESPN announced this week that they would be airing a card headlined by a heavyweight matchup between Bryant Jennings and Oscar Rivas from Verona New York. Jennings was last seen stopping Alexander Dimitrenko in August, while Rivas is undefeated but has not faced very good competition. How bad is the competition he has faced? Well, before he fights Jennings he is scheduled to fight Fabio Maldonado in December. Yes, that Fabio Maldonado. The same card will see undefeated Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson facing an opponent yet to be named.

Michael B. Jordan and Roy Jones Jr. Looking to Fight Each Other

This week, Michael B. Jordan, who plays Adonis Creed in the viciously overrated “Creed” franchise, expressed an interest in fighting Roy Jones Jr., saying that he would never have a shot against “Captain Hook” in his prime, but these days he would love to give it a shot. Jones, who once wrote an entire rap song around the concept that y’all musta forgot how good he is at boxing, jumped at the opportunity and said he would gladly fight the young, cocky actor anytime.

While Little Creed was probably just looking to drum up publicity for the film -- isn’t it weird how every actor that makes a boxing movie becomes good enough to beat the pros, but never tries to make it as an actual boxer? -- the idea that he wouldn’t get knocked out by Roy Jones Jr. is pure fantasy. Not only would Jordan stand no chance against Roy Jones, he would get the shit kicked out of him by AC Slater.