By Lem Satterfield

NATE JONES: ‘ADRIEN MAKES A LOT OF MISTAKES’

Nate Jones was assisting Mike Stafford when he was training Adrien Broner for his match against Shawn Porter last June. Broner lost a 12-round decision to Porter that day, but rebounded with a victory over Khabib Allakhverdiev for the WBA 140-pound title last October.

Jones is now training Ashley Theophane, who will meet Broner for the title on PBC on Spike (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT) at the DC Armory in Washington D.C. on April 1.  Jones will use what he learned about Broner against Porter to help Theophane beat Broner.

 “Adrien Broner’s not as fundamentally sound as I thought and makes a lot of mistakes, and we’re going to make him pay for those mistakes,’’ Jones said. “I know Ashley’s got what it takes to beat him. Ashley’s just got to go after him and stay on top of him. You gotta make it rough on Adrien, hit him on the elbows and the shoulders.’’

Jones believes Theophane is more fundamentally sound than Broner.

“I think Ashley’s got a better jab than Adrien and I think he boxes a little bit better than Adrien,’’ Jones said. “Adrien’s strong, and, to me, that’s one of his best attributes. But I told him the only way Shawn was going to beat him was to outwork him. Those are a few things that stuck with me when I was one of his corner men. Adrien’s a very good friend of mine, but this is business.”

Theophane is confident he’ll win his seventh straight against Broner.

“Me and Nate Jones have been working on a game plan for Adrien Broner, and we know the way to beat him,’’ Theophane said. “A lot of the critics tell me, ‘You’re not Shawn Porter,’ and, ‘You’re not Marcos Maidana,’ but there was the Paulie (Malignaggi) fight as well. A lot of people thought he lost that fight, too, so you don’t have to just use brute strength to beat him.’’

“There are other ways to neutralize him. I spar with a lot of young guys who imitate him. Adrien does a lot of things right, but he also does a lot of things wrong. A.B. is not Floyd. He can be beaten and he has been beaten, and I believe that I can match him on a lot of different levels. At the end of the day, this is my career-defining fight, and I’m going to produce on April 1.”

 BERTO WANTS TO SETTLE ACCOUNTS WITH ORTIZ FINALLY

Just over five years after a brawl featuring two knockdowns by each fighter, Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto will meet again on FOX and FOX Deportes (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California on Saturday, April 30.

Ortiz (31-5-2, 24 KOs) came away with a unanimous decision and took away the WBC welterweight title from Berto (30-4, 23 KOs). Both men were at the peak of their careers at the time. After the match both boxers struggled through injuries, though Berto seems to have had the most.

Berto, 32, returned to full-time training from shoulder surgery in August 2014, having had surgery in August 2013 to repair a ruptured subscapularis (under the shoulder blade) tendon he suffered during a 12th-round stoppage loss to Jesus Soto Karass in July 2013. Before that he had a procedure to repair a ruptured left biceps in February 2012.

“Everything I’ve been through has turned me into a savage,” Berto said. “It’s time to close this chapter once and for all. I want his head. This is the fight the people have been waiting for and it’s time to give it to them. I am in a good place, mentally, physically and spiritually.”  

Berto is coming off the loss to Floyd Mayweather, which ended his two-fight winning streak.

“I’ve never wanted my story to be perfect. That’s boring,” Berto said. “Life is filled with ups and downs, and I’ve embraced them all in my career.”

GLOWACKI WANTS TO EXPLOIT CUNNINGHAM’S TROUBLE WITH SOUTHPAWS

Polish cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Glowacki appears to have some clear advantages over Steve Cunningham when they meet at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on the PBC on NBC (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) on Saturday, April 16.

Glowacki, 29, is undefeated (25-0, 16 KOs), 10 years younger than Cunningham and riding the momentum of a dramatic victory over Marcos Huck to win the WBO cruiserweight title last August. But his biggest advantage could be his southpaw stance. Cunningham has had trouble with lefties, getting dropped six times and posting a 3-2-1 record with one of those losses coming on a TKO, against southpaws.

Fiodor Łapin, Glowacki’s trainer, isn’t counting on that alone to carry the champion to victory over Cunningham. But it’s just one of several things he thinks he can take advantage of.

 “We are not looking at Cunningham as a southpaw thinking he is easy to hit,” Łapin said. “I don't yet have a blueprint how to fight him, but no doubt there's stuff, errors in both his offensive and defensive stance that we can exploit. What I'm doing is finding his mistakes.”

Łapin developed the strategy for southpaw Artur Szpilka in his heavyweight championship match against Deontay Wilder. Szpilka gave Wilder trouble until the champion figured it out and knocked out Szpilka in the ninth round in January.

Cunningham (28-7-1, 13 KOs) is a former cruiserweight champion who is returning to the division after campaigning as a heavyweight for the last four years. He struggled to a split-draw against southpaw Antonio Tarver in a 12-round heavyweight match last August, and decided to drop down in weight. It was on the same card that Glowacki defeated Huck with an 11th round KO for the title.

 “I did not see the Cunningham-Tarver fight, but my coach was watching,” said Glowacki. “I cannot disrespect Cunningham’s power when you’re talking about Tarver, because we all know how good Tarver is defensively.”

In his last cruiserweight bouts against southpaws, Cunningham lost to the same man - Yoan Pablo Hernandez. The first loss came in a controversial sixth round technical decision in 2011 and the next year he lost by unanimous decision. Hernandez knocked down Cunningham once in the first fight and twice in the second match.

However, Lapin is making note of Cunningham’s two fights with Poland’s Krysztof “Diablo” Wlardczyk. Cunningham went 1-1 in those fights, losing a majority decision in the first and taking a split decision victory in the second.

“When Wlodarczyk fought him the first time and I was in Diablo’s corner,” Lapin said. “Tactically, Cunningham is a lot harder to fight than Huck, who is simple: Stay close, don't let him start swinging, hit him before he wants to hit you. Steve Cunningham is a more difficult fighter who gives you more complications.”

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Lem Satterfield is a writer for Premier Boxing Champions. Re-use of any or all of this material must contain proper attribution that reflects that.