For Ashley Theophane, outworking Adrien Broner will give him a chance to realize 30-year dream
WASHINGTON - For three decades, Ashley Theophane has had this crazy dream.
Ever since he was a five-year-old living in London and watched a 20-year-old Mike Tyson win his first world title on TV, Theophane has been in love with boxing. Early on he thought, "why can't I be a world champion, too?"
Sure enough, Theophane became a professional boxer, but for 13 years he's toiled mostly in obscurity, never getting that shot he's dreamed about for the last 30 years.
Until now.
On Friday night in the DC Armory, Theophane, now 35 and on the downslope of his career, gets his chance, at long last, to win that coveted world title. And he'll do it on national TV (PBC on Spike, 9 p.m. ET).
He'll have to go through former WBA super lightweight champion Adrien Broner to capture his impossible dream, but he's pretty sure he's got what it takes to hold up the belt for the first time.
Heart, and plenty of it, mostly. Doctors looked at his EKG and told him how strong his heart is.
"So I'm in shape and I'm ready to fight hard for 12 rounds," Theophane (39-6-1, 11 KOs) told Paste BN Sports. "If he slacks in any way, it will show in the fight because I'm going to give my all, and at the end of the day, I believe I'm good enough to beat him. But until I'm in the ring with him, you don't know."
Broner was stripped of his title by the WBA Thursday after weighing in at 140.4 pounds, .4 pounds over the limit. He will have to forfeit $50,000 of his purse to Theophane, who weighed in right at 140 pounds.
Theophane has more going for him than heart. Despite being a massive underdog to the 26-year-old Broner (31-2, 23 KOs), he believes his work rate outshines Broner by almost 2-1. He's won his last half dozen fights that way.
"I've been sparring and my punch output has been tremendous, like a thousand in 12 rounds. I have to outwork him 100%, there's no other way," Theophane said. "He throws an average 400-500 punches in a fight, 500 is a max. If I can throw what I've been doing in the gym, 900-to-1,000, the judges are going to see that.
"That's why I say I can win, but my sparring partners are not (Broner), so as long as I can do what I've been doing in the gym against him, I've got no doubt in my mind I will win. I'm in shape to do it. It's just doing it when it counts."
There is one other, not-so-insignificant thing. Broner's personal life is in chaos, the result of being stripped of his title, and also for being wanted by police in his home town of Cincinnati on charges of felonious assault and aggravated robbery last week. The charges came in connection with a lawsuit filed against Broner for an incident in January at a Cincinnati bowling alley, in which the plaintiff alleges that Broner knocked him out and stole $14,000 at gunpoint after losing thousands in bowling bets in games the two men were playing earlier that evening.
Theophane said, before Broner was stripped of his title, that such personal upheaval could affect "The Problem" negatively.
"It could, but it depends whether he did (what he is accused of) or not," Theophane said. "If he did it then it will distract him, but if he didn't, then he won't really care.
"I've trained for the best Broner I've seen. If he shows up the way he did against Shawn (Porter), great. If he shows up the way he did against Marcos (Maidana), it will be a harder fight. So I've prepared for the hardest Broner that I've seen, and like with most boxers, there's something going on in our private lives anyway, so I'm sure he's used to it. There's always (seemingly) something going on in his life."
Broner lost to Porter last June by unanimous decision, though he knocked Porter down in the 12th round. He lost for the first time in his career to Maidana in December 2013 after being knocked down for the first time and nearly out in the first round. He was also knocked down again in the 8 th, but held on and lost by unanimous decision
Theophane is now living in Las Vegas and trains at Floyd Mayweather's gym. That has made a huge difference in getting his title shot, he insists.
"It's like .1% ever get there (to earning a title shot), and then it's getting that chance. I was world No. 4 five years ago but I didn't have a promoter so I didn't get that chance," he said. "For me, the chance is something I've worked my whole life for.
"It's been like a crazy journey against the odds. I've got this far, so to me it's not impossible to think I can achieve the impossible."
(Photo of Ashley Theophane, with the Washington Monument in the background, by Cliff Owen, AP)