by David P. Greisman

Adrien Broner faced plenty of criticism for dropping his junior welterweight world title on the scales before he could even make what was supposed to be his first defense of it. Broner went on to beat Ashley Theophane anyway, but he left without his belt and announced a move up to the welterweight division.

The criticism was especially loud given that Broner came in at 140.4 pounds and didn’t try to drop the last bit of weight. Broner told syndicated radio show The Breakfast Club on Wednesday morning that it wasn’t as easy as some might think.

“My body was done. I did all I can do,” he said. “We weighed in Thursday. My last meal was Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning I woke up, ran another six miles, still haven’t ate. Had to rest a little bit. Did a press conference, then went to go train again. Still haven’t ate. Still overweight. Still four pounds overweight. So I went back to the hotel and ran another six miles. Still haven’t ate. Went to sleep, woke up, ran another six miles. Listen: I don’t even want to say everything I did, but my body, it was over.”

The show’s hosts didn’t ask what Broner had started camp at, which would’ve been a good question given the fighter’s propensity for adding on the pounds between bouts.

Broner stopped Theophane in the ninth round to move to 32-2 with 24 KOs.

“It could’ve been an easier fight for me, but at the end of the day I’ve outgrown the weight class and am going up in weight,” he said.

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