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Lem’s latest: Paul Spadafora to face Adrien Broner?

Fighters Network
23
Jul

Once-beaten junior welterweight Paul Spadafora, who is coming off a unanimous decision over Hector Velazquez on July 11, confirmed a report that he is a consideration for a Sept. 6 fight against Adrien Broner.

“My manager, Joe Horn, said something to me about that. He asked me if I would take the fight, and I said, ‘Yeah, of course,'” said Spadafora, a former IBF lightweight titleholder who turns 39 in September. “He asked me this like two or three days ago, and I was like, ‘Of course I’d take that fight.'”

The news was first reported by FightHype.com.

Prior to facing Velazquez, Spadafora (49-1-1, 19 knockouts) suffered his first loss to twice-beaten contender Johan Perez in November, and was being eyed for a potential contract with Golden Boy. Known as “The Pittsburgh Kid,” Spadafora had previously been in the ring for a unanimous-decision victory over Robert Frankel in April 2013.



A three-division titlewinner, Broner (28-1, 22 KOs) and Lucas Matthysse (35-3, 33 KOs) are being considered for separate bouts on Sept. 6 at a site to be determined.

“My manager wasn’t saying it was a done deal or anything like that, but he didn’t sound like it wasn’t, either. I don’t want to get the call and then get excited and it’s not there, you know what I’m saying. So it ain’t for sure,” said Spadafora.

“But a fight like that would be great for me. That would really motivate me to f–kin’ get my s–t right. That would be a big fight for me. That would be the biggest fight for me that I’ve had in 15 years, or that I would ever have. That would have me on the track to do some great things.”

Spadafora was once a highly-rated fighter before he was derailed by repeated troubles with the law. He won the IBF lightweight title by unanimous decision over Israel Cardona in August of 1999 and defended it eight times.

Broner, 24, is coming off a unanimous decision over Carlos Molina in his 140-pound debut on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s majority decision over Marcos Maidana in May. Broner bounced back from a unanimous-decision loss to Maidana in December, during which he was floored in the second and eighth rounds.

In his last fight in April, Matthysse, who turns 32 in September, rose from two knockdowns to score three of his own on the way to an 11th-round knockout over John Molina.

THE RING’s No. 1-ranked junior welterweight, Matthysse had previously been in action last September when he was dropped in the 11th round of a unanimous decision loss to unbeaten RING 140-pound champion Danny Garcia.

 

ROBERTO GARCIA-BREIDIS PRESCOTT; CALEB TRUAX-DEREK ENNIS FIGHT ON FRIDAY

Welterweights Roberto Garc├¡a (35-3, 23 KOs) and Breidis Prescott (27-5, 20 KOs) will be in the main event, with support from a middleweight bout between Caleb Truax (23-1-2, 14 KOs) and Derek Ennis (24-4-1, 13 KOs) on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights” from the UIC Convention Center in Chicago.

Also on the card is Chicago resident Mike Lee (12-0, 7 KOs) against Paul Gonsalves (7-3, 3 KOs) in a light heavyweight bout.

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