Welterweight contender Blair Cobbs, who recently signed with Don King Promotions, has secured a matchup with former four-division titleholder Adrien Broner – a bout Cobbs has long sought. An intriguing twist emerged when the promotional poster for the bout carried a cryptic warning: “If Broner shows up.”
Scheduled for June 7 at the Seminole Hard Rock in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the fight will serve as an undercard attraction for the WBC cruiserweight title clash between Norair Mikaeljan and Ryan Rozicki.
Cobbs (16-1-1, 10 KOs) trains in Las Vegas under the guidance of Justin Gamber – the coach who led Caleb Plant to the IBF super middleweight title. At age 34 and having been out of the ring for a year and a half, Cobbs plans to make the most of his fight against Broner (35-4-1, 24 KOs).
In a recent conversation with BoxingScene, Cobbs discussed his thoughts on Broner (also 34), his preparation for their fight, his journey back to the ring after his split from Golden Boy Promotions, and more.
BoxingScene: So … “if Broner shows up”? What does that mean?
Blair Cobbs: The whole “if Broner shows up” is just because Don King is tired of the thing with Broner. Broner has not been very consistent with showing up. Like, I think his last fight [King] did [with Broner], he didn’t show up. So that was what created a little bit of a concern for Don King. But 100 percent, the fight is happening. And 100 percent, AB is showing up – and he’s training and he’s working very, very hard to make this fight happen.
BS: Is your fight still considered the main event?
BC: Yeah, yeah. The main attraction is always going to be me and AB. But of course they have some cruiserweight fights, and this and that. That’s going on. We have a pretty good, stacked undercard that Don King has put on. But the big show and the big attraction is Blair “The Flair” versus Adrien Broner. I look forward to seeing another press release come out shortly from now.
BS: How do you expect this fight to play out?
BC: Blair “The Flair” is coming in to fight him and stop him, and Blair “The Flair” is going to beat him. I’ve been training at 100 percent. I’ve been training with some of the best trainers. My body is in top shape, and I look forward to seeing exactly what Blair “The Flair” has to show. Because the thing is, nobody really knows what I’m capable of. All you see is little bits and pieces of what I can do, and I’m always the person that is unpredictable.
There’s a lot of fights that people put me in, and Golden Boy has put me in a lot of big fights that were high-risk fights with low rewards. Even that last fight, with Maurice Hooker, he was a very big fighter and he even came in heavy, and Golden Boy knew that he would come in heavy. He had a full camp training with some of the best fighters, and Terence Crawford said that he would stop me within two rounds, and we’ve seen what happened within two rounds. Shortly after that, Terence Crawford was supposed to fight Blair “The Flair” … He said no, I’d rather fight Joe Blow guy [David Avanesyan].
So there’s been a whole lot of things, trying to stop what’s going on and trying to stop Blair “The Flair,” but nothing is going to stop Blair “The Flair.” Now I’m continuing on my path to greatness, and I’m going to win this fight and look impressive. What you can look for in the AB fight is one of the greatest ass-whoopings of all time, with punches in bunches and annihilation from headshots and body shots alike.
BS: How hard was the layoff? Because you’re an entertainer as much as a boxer, how did that time away from an audience affect you?
BC: it affected me to a point where I had to call upon my faith. I had to call upon God to hold me and keep me strong. I had to call upon a lot of different things that have been helping me, a lot of good people. I’m very, very well supported by great management, Greg Hannley. I’m supported by great people that are around me, and things like that. I’m just promoted by a great promoter right now, which is Don King, and I love to put on impressive performances and be the No. 1 guy in the promotion and be the No. 1 attraction in boxing, period.
BS: How did the decision to sign with King come about?
BC: Adrien Broner’s people contacted me. Now, I’ve been having a lot of people from my side trying to make the connection to this and that, and this and that. OK, what about Matchroom? What about Golden Boy? Do you guys want to give me something? What’s going to happen next? The whole Golden Boy situation didn’t pan out because they didn’t want to put Vergil Ortiz on the chopping block. Put him in a 50-50 [fight] with Blair “The Flair” and see what happens. Nah, they didn’t want that to happen. Because that’s the only thing that would happen after an Alexis Rocha rematch – he will inevitably get beat down. That’s just the whole situation. So then we moved on to other things, and Golden Boy had been stalling me out a lot with legal things that’s been happening. I hold no grudge towards Golden Boy. I think that they’re doing an incredible job with Ryan Garcia and an incredible job with their prospects and promotions. It just didn’t work out for me, and then we also had these things going on where we were chasing other promotions, and the one that pulled the trigger was Adrien Broner and his team calling me on the phone to make it happen and make the fight happen. Shortly after that, I was in Don King’s office making the deal happen and making the fight happen.
BS: Were you ever close to a fight with Conor Benn?
BC: Man, I’ve been trying to get that fight for a long time. It just wasn’t close enough. I mean, I was closer to fighting Manny Pacquiao than Connor Benn; we were actually in negotiations and things like that. I had a team of people that wanted to put up the money, but they just wanted way too much money. They kind of outpriced themselves, and it just really wasn’t worth the money that they wanted. So we couldn’t get the Manny Pacquiao fight to happen. Which is still not completely out of the picture. That fight could very well happen next; it could very well happen sometime in the future. That will be legendary. There is no fighter that I really respect and honor more than Manny Pacquiao, my favorite fighter.
BS: What does a win over Broner, at this point in his career, do for you and your career?
BC: Broner is going to come in tip-top shape. He’s a four-time world champion. Where it takes Blair “The Flair” is to the elite level. Where it takes Blair “The Flair” is No. 1. No. 1 in the welterweight division at that particular time after that fight is done. Blair “The Flair” will be the only fighter out of all of them that has fought an actual name, that has fought a legit champion, and that is something to tip my hat on. Because that’s something that’s never been done. It’s not like we have Keith Thurman fighting [Jaron] Ennis or [Eimantas] Stanionis or anybody like that. It’s not like any of these other fighters are really willing to take that risk to fight the younger champions. The younger, to-be champions. So honestly, I give Adrien Broner a lot of respect for even taking that chance, because nobody else wants to.
BS: Would you take an Ennis fight after this if it’s offered? Is that the fight you want?
BC: That’s a fight that can very well happen. I’m gonna be honest with you, though. Right now, my whole 100 percent focus is on AB, my whole 100 percent focus is on just one fight at a time right now. I’m not really looking past this fight. It is all or nothing in this fight, and even with all the preparations in the world, and everything can be going in your favor, something can happen. Nobody is immune to just one lucky shot. So Blair “The Flair” has to be the absolute best and have 100 percent focus on one target, which is Adrien Broner.
After Adrien Broner, my stock should be higher than some guy like f****** Ennis. Ennis did not fight Adrien Broner, Ennis did not fight Keith Thurman, and Ennis did not fight Danny Garcia or anybody else – even Mikey Garcia, anybody. He didn’t fight anybody compared to me at that point, and I have a whole lot less fights. I’ve gone through ups and downs, and have a tale that will put tons of people in their seats at a theater just to watch it. I’ve gone through plenty and I’m not really worried or even have a thought process for Ennis right now – or anybody like that right now. I’m just focused on that one fight.
BS: How are things going with your new trainer? How did you link up?
BC: Justin Gamber is an incredible fighter. I was very, very lucky to get somebody like that on my team. It came about when I made a call with a very close friend of mine. His name is Mario Serrano – he made some calls. He said, “Hey, I got the perfect guy for you, and he’s just getting back into Vegas.” I had just moved to Vegas, and then all that stuff started to happen, and it was like magic. The first day, we were right back on it. It was somebody that I trained with before, but then he had too much focus on his other fighter, which was Caleb Plant. But that didn’t go as well later on, and it just opened up opportunities for me. This is all God’s blessings.
BS: At this point in your career, what would winning a world title mean to you?
BC: It would mean a lot for somebody like me, who loves to talk s***. My legs are crossed. OK. For somebody like me, who loves the talk s***, you couldn’t stop me then. If I had a title, the world would have to recognize, regardless. It wouldn’t just be the most exciting man in boxing, it would be the most exciting man in boxing with a world title. You got nothing to say. And nobody’s got nothing on me at that point. That’s just a big step in the right direction. Not just for me, but also for boxing.
I feel like boxing needs personalities like Blair “The Flair” to set things straight. There are some good guys out there, some good personalities that seem to be sometimes taking things in the wrong direction. Even with promoting fights. We keep talking about [performance-enhancing drugs]. It’s a lot of noise. and it’s not necessarily very positive at all. It just doesn’t have the comedy that we need. I think Blair “The Flair,” I think Adrien Broner, I think that particular fight, is just what people have been looking for.
BS: How do you feel about the current state of boxing?
BC: I’m not playing the tag game, the rag-tag game that people play now, where they are like, ‘Oh yeah, well, I want this amount of money’ or this, this, this and that. It’s a lot of nonsense that’s going on in boxing. I feel like the business of boxing is stealing the passion of boxing. There are a lot of beautiful fights that could be made, and time does matter. It matters that you fought that person at that particular time. You know, it matters.
What could be a great fight? When we sat here and watched Floyd [Mayweather] play tag with the idea of fighting Manny Pacquiao for seven years until long after Manny Pacquiao’s prime. It stole from the fans, and then a lot of fans just left boxing, literally from that day, from that fight. Right now, we’re still dealing with it. We have a great face of boxing in Canelo Alvarez, [who is] still not taking the fight with this young lion that is truly ready for the big leagues, that everybody wants to see him fighting and everybody’s talking about it in [David] Benavidez. Now, look, that could be Canelo’s last fight or it could be Benavidez’s last fight. But, regardless, it’s going to be a great fight that everybody wants to see, and it’s a shame. How the politics and the business of boxing are stealing what could be great about boxing.
BS: Anything else we should know about this camp or going into this fight?
BC: The world has never seen Blair “The Flair” at his true best. Even the Alexis Rocha fight was only on one-week notice. In the Maurice Hooker fight, a lot of people consider it a fluke. It’s very funny how, time in and time out, I surprise the world every single time with high-risk and low-reward fights. Fighting all the way to a point where I’m at this level, fighting Adrien Broner – a very, very big fight and a very, very tough contender, you know, who already has plenty of titles to show for his life. Blair “The Flair” rising up above all of that as the biggest underdog in the biggest underdog story, look forward to greatness being made come June 7.
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