HBO lands Mitchell-Banks, Broner on Oct. 6 from Atlantic City
Heavyweight prospect Seth “Mayhem” Mitchell and former WBO junior lightweight beltholder Adrien Broner will put their unbeaten records on the line in an HBO-televised card from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Oct. 6, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer informed RingTV.com.
Broner (24-0, 20 knockouts), who turned 23 on July 28, is coming off last month’s HBO-televised knockout of Vicente Escobedo from the U.S. Bank Arena in Broner’s hometown of Cincinnati. The victory was Broner’s fourth straight stoppage win.
Mitchell (25-0-1, 19 KOs), of Gwynn Park, Md., will be facing Johnathon Banks (28-1-1, 18 KOs), with whom he had been forced out of scheduled July 14 bout as a result of having strained his right hand.
“We’re working on Oct. 6. The idea is to have a double-header with Adrien Broner fighting somebody. Our team, together with HBO, we’re currently looking at the right opponent,” said Schaefer.
“Seth Mitchell with Jonathon Banks is something that we talked about before and which we have confirmed already, so it would be a double-header from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.”
Before even entering the ring against Escobedo, Broner lost his WBO belt at the scales for missing the contracted weight of 130 pounds both the day prior to the fight and during a Saturday morning re-weigh.
Broner, who will face an opponent to be determined, called out WBC lightweight beltholder Antonio DeMarco of Tijuana, Mexico, as well as four-division beltwinner Juan Manuel Marquez, of Mexico City, and former lightweight titleholder Brandon Rios.
But DeMarco (27-2-1, 20 KOs) has a scheduled third defense against John Molina (24-1, 19 KOs) of Covina, Calif., on the undercard of a main event featuring RING light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson and RING super middleweight champion Andre Ward Sept. 8 on HBO.
Broner also won’t face WBO lightweight beltholder Ricky Burns (34-2, 9 KOs), of Scotland, who has a defense opposite Kevin Mitchell (33-1, 24 KOs), of England, on Sept. 22.
Broner, who will debut as a lightweight, has expressed some frustration with the fact that he has not been able to land an opponent.
“Man, don’t nobody want to sign on that dotted line to hang themselves. Don’t nobody want to grab that rope to hang themselves, man,” said Broner. “But anybody can get it. Everybody that’s anybody can get it. But at the end of the day, the results are always going to be the same.”
Photo by Naoki Fukuda
Photo by Delane Rouse, Hogan Photos, Golden Boy Promotions
Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]