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Adrien Broner pats himself on the back after Spike TV ratings splurge

Fighters Network
04
Apr
Adrien Broner crashes an overhand right down on Ashley Theophane, who was stopped in Round 9 of their junior welterweight bout on April 1 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Naoki Fukuda

Adrien Broner lands on Ashley Theophane on Friday in a dominant beatdown. Photo: Naoki Fukuda

Adrien Broner, free after posting bond on charges of felonious assault and aggravated robbery, patted himself on the back on Monday afternoon for the ratings windfall his bout with Ashley Theophane produced on Spike.

Broner’s ninth-round stoppage of an overmatched Theophane at the D.C. Armory while there was a pair of warrants out for his arrest was the most-watched PBC on Spike fight in the series’ short history, the network announced on Monday. Broner-Theophane averaged a record 1.013 million viewers between 10:36 p.m. and 11:21. The overall card, which included a sensational knockout by Robert Easter Jr. against Algenis Mendez, delivered 873,000 viewers — also a record for a PBC on Spike event.

Apparently, the public ate up the storyline of Broner fighting in Washington, D.C., even though he was wanted in another state. Broner, who turned himself in to Cincinnati authorities on Monday and posted bond a short time later, thanked his fans and seemed to also congratulate himself on social media: “Records are made to be broken,” Broner wrote on Instagram. “I wanna thank all my fans I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Broner is due back in court for arraignment on Tuesday morning. He allegedly beat up a man and robbed him outside a bowling alley on Jan. 21 after losing thousands of dollars in bets to the man, according to the Cincinnati police.



Spike debuted the PBC series on March 13, 2015, offering telecasts that were headlined by such bouts as Antonio Tarver vs. Steve Cunningham and Chris Algieri vs. Amir Khan. But they were no match for Broner, who punched his ticket into the Spike record books on Friday.

 

Mitch Abramson is a former reporter for the New York Daily News and can be reached on Twitter at: @Mabramson13.

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