Adrien Broner returned to the ring after a two-year absence from boxing due to a variety of problems. After signing with Don King’s promotion following BLK Prime’s failure to deliver a single fight for him, Broner was finally able to scrap on Friday, June 9th. Bill Hutchinson ― a practicing attorney ― was his opponent on the day but failed to do much else but hold on until the final round.
The Welterweight non-title bout was slated for ten rounds and passed the full 30 minutes to reach the end of the 10th round. Judges’ scorecards (100-90 and 99-91 twice) indicated an almost complete domination on the part of Adrien Broner (35-4-1, 24 KO’s) who suffered few to no issues while facing Bill Hutchinson (20-3-4, 9 KO’s).
Though Broner clearly took over the fight early and seemed to throw a record number of punches compared to his earlier matches throughout his career, the former multi-division champion failed to deliver a spectacular knockout or even a knockdown.
Bill Hutchinson put up a good fight throughout the ten rounds but seemed to lack the physical attributes and/or the skill to truly put a dent in Broner or at least stop him. Depending on one’s view, there’s plenty of cases to say it was either an underwhelming or good match for either fighter.
While Hutchinson never truly impressed, his ability to stay standing against a former world champion while never having fought at that level would certainly warrant praise. Adrien Broner failed to stop or knock his opponent out but went through the paces of ten rounds to show that he could compete at a certain level.
After ten rounds, Broner was announced the winner which, of course, came paired with a controversial comment, but overall he had a successful return to he ring after an absence of two years. Despite dealing with ring rust and a degree of high expectations due to his former world champion status, Adrien Broner showed himself to be an acute professional and skilled fighter in his fight with Hutchinson.
Bill Hutchinson showed that while he wasn’t exactly elite, he could be a threat to boxers at the lower level. He never impressed with anything but lasting ten rounds with Broner ― who had notably tried to take him out in the first few rounds ― will have to go down as a victory of some sort.
Broner has already called out a pair of fighters who are currently (or set to be) active at Super Lightweight including Ryan Garcia (23-1, 19 KO’s) and Regis Prograis (28-1, 24 KO’s), but his performance against Hutchinson did not suggest he would fare well. There is also the fact that they fight at 140 lbs, a division below the 147-pound division in which he just fought.
Even if managing to make weight that he hasn’t reached since 2017, Broner will be up against a talented crop of fighters that are currently in the division and it will be a steep ride for him if he hopes to challenge the top fighters at 140 lbs, or 147 lbs.
