In yet another shocking twist, another opponent that was supposed to face Adrien Broner was forced out of a potential fight with the former two-division world champion due to unforeseen circumstances. Michael Williams Jr. was set to face Broner on February 25th, but the 23-year old prospect has been pulled out of the fight after apparently suffering a broken jaw in sparring.
Though an official announcement from BLK Prime, the promotion – to which Adrien Broner (34-4-1, 24 KO’s) was signed to – that was organizing the fight event, has not put out an official response, Michael Williams Sr., father of Williams Jr. (20-1, 13 KO’s), revealed that the fight was off through a message on social media.
This now makes it the third opponent that pulled out of a fight with Broner within the span of just a month. Broner’s first opponent, Ivan Redkach (23-6-1, 18 KO’s), was replaced with Henry “Hank” Lundy (31-12-1, 14 KO’s), following a dispute with his promoter Joe DeGuardia. Lundy was removed less than two weeks ago with Michael Williams Jr. also removed from the fight when it was apparent that he was contracted to fight another fighter in Ernesto Mercado (9-0, 9 KO’s).
Though the circumstances surrounding Broner’s opponents pulling out are already rare and uncommon in boxing, Williams Sr., who was a pro boxer himself, drummed up even more interest when he revealed what spurred his son to pull out of the fight in a recent interview. Williams Sr. also shed light on his dealings with Roy Jones Jr., who had been training Williams Jr. for the fight with Broner.
“Monday, Roy got my son sparring.” Williams Sr. said.
“After they did like 10 rounds, Mike (Williams) Jr. hit me up (and said), ‘hey dad, Roy (Jones Jr.) is acting funny’.
“He told me Roy was acting funny before this. I shut my son out.” Williams Sr. lamented.
“I said ‘man, chill out. Him (Roy Jones Jr.) and his wife they probably down there. They’re hard on you. You about to fight AB (Adrien Broner). That’s the only reason they’re being hard on you‘.” Williams explained.
Williams Sr. further alleges in the interview that Roy Jones Jr. approached Williams Jr. one night to dissuade him from fighting Broner, but Williams rejected the idea.
“Tuesday morning, Roy goes to Mike’s room and tries to talk Mike out of taking the fight. Mike Jr. tells Roy he’s still fighting. At that point, Roy goes ‘alright, we about to go spar again in a couple of hours when you come to the gym‘.
After the sparring session that day, Williams Jr. discovered his teeth had cracked only to later find out at the dentist that his jaw had fractured. In an explicit rant that we cannot feature on this website, Williams Sr. questioned the sparring sessions that his son had to go through when two weeks away from a fight with Adrien Broner. and the mismatch with his sparring opponent whose size was much bigger than Broner and style seemed to be completely different.
“It was done on purpose.” Williams Sr. maintained.
“Now the whole sh**’s f***ed up. Where Roy at? In Germany right now!”
Williams Sr. also explained how he and his son became involved with Roy Jones Jr.
“Five years ago, Roy was the first to take interest in my son. I knew he wasn’t the best coach. That’s why we did split-training. Cause his strength and conditioning is trash. He don’t got no set program.
“When my son is with him, does he learn sh**? Yeah. But you need a trainer who’s going to be there full time!” Williams Sr. said.
Roy Jones Jr. also serves as the trainer of Chris Eubank Jr. (32-3, 23 KO’s) who recently suffered a technical knockout loss against fellow Brit Liam Smith (33-3-1, 20 KO’s). In his interview, Williams Sr. also alleged that Roy Jones Jr. pushed Williams hard because of Eubank’s recent loss, and Jones’ wife’s remarks that his fighters “made him look bad”, which allegedly spurred Eubank to prevent a potential loss of his fighter by first looking to dissuade him, and then arranging for a sparring session approximately a week or two before the fight – something that is highly irregular at that stage of a training camp.
With Williams Jr. out, Broner is left in limbo again. With BLK Prime not yet addressing the issue, questions currently hang in the air on whether a replacement can be found for Broner, or if his match will be postponed.
