By Steve Kim

It was a close, hard-fought split decision that went against Adrian Granados this past weekend as he battled Adrien Broner for ten rounds at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Granados had to deal with a late change in the weight limit (from 142 to 147) along with fighting Broner in his backyard.

Yet he still put up a valiant effort.

Something that his manager says did not go unnoticed by those in charge.

Andy Zak, who represents Granados, told BoxingScene.com in a recent interview - "I've talked to Stephen (Espinoza, the Executive V.P. and G.M. of Showtime Sports) about it, he was aware of it. We had that discussions that weekend of the Dejan (Zlaticanin)-(Mikey) Garcia fight and I told him what was going on. He was quite aware of everything that happened. Obviously when you're dealing with a guy who's allowed to get away with anything and everything this stuff is going to happen."

When Granados and his side were approached about upping the weight a few weeks before the fight, it wasn't so much an offer but an ultimatum.

"We can't have the fight without Broner, bottom line, we needed the fight and we definitely were not going to walk away from an opportunity like that," said Zak.

Regardless, Granados made it a fight - an entertaining one at that.

"Adrian Granados took advantage of everything he could. He won a lot of new fans last [weekend]. The world got to see a taste of Adrian Granados and they want to see more and Stephen Espinoza was so kind to come in after the fight and have a long discussion with Adrian and let us know that he cant wait to get us back on  'Showtime Championship Boxing'. So we'll be back stronger than ever."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.