Adrien Broner: 'Black fans don't support black fighters, we have to connect with them'

In a recent interview with RingTV.com, Adrien Broner showed another side to his personality, sort of talking shop a bit more than just spouting catchphrases and other rehearsed lines, but what too many took away from it was a comment in the middle of the piece where he said this:

"I mean, (Antonio DeMarco is) the world champion at 135, and he just came off of some great stoppages, and so whatever I go in there and do, of course I want them to give me what I deserve. But just being me, and, you know, I'm an African American. So, you know, they're going to always find something wrong, and they're going to always find something to say. So that's why I just do what I do, and I don't even worry about the critics, man."

This stirred up the expected debate, overshadowing an otherwise informative interview with the 23-year-old Cincinnati native, which sort of displayed a change in the tone of his normal interviews.

Broner has another interview up at RingTV.com with Joseph Santoloquito, and Santoloquito asks him about those comments. First things first: Go read the interview in full, because one again, it's really good. I like the small changes that are coming from Broner in these interviews. I think they're important and very noteworthy.

But he does address the "controversial" comments, and here's what he had to say:

"I was telling the truth; African-Americans don’t really follow each other in boxing like the Hispanics and Mexicans, the Puerto Ricans do. I’m just saying the fans support their fighters. They support their fighters. It’s so hard for us to support our own, because coming up where we come from; they don’t want to see the next man doing better than them. That’s just how it is. I’m so used to it; I don’t let it get to me. I came off looking like a racist. Black fans don’t support black fighters; it’s the truth. We have to connect with them, and grab them. They want to see excitement; they want to laugh; they want to be entertained. I’m not just a professional fighter. I’m an entertainer, too. I love to entertain."

I don't think many people read the original comments this way, but that's the follow-up from Broner. Whether or not you think he's still wrong, or wrong this time, or whatever, that's part two of what he was saying the first time around.

Broner also discussed his on-screen personality, or his "character" if you will, saying he's not a villain:

"I know it can rub off on some people the wrong way, this guy is too cocky, or he’s too arrogant, or this or that. But once you get to know Adrien Broner, people just fall in love with me. I think I’m misunderstood; maybe because of what people see and what they cut and put on HBO. Some of that. They can film me for two days, but they’ll pick out the things that make me look a certain way."

I'm telling you, I don't know if it's on purpose, if he started seeing that people were taking him a way he didn't intend to be taken, or if he's just learned a little bit, or if it's just how he's feeling lately, or whatever, but I like the change in Broner. It's not an about-face -- he's still confident, still brash, still cocky, still arrogant. But there's substance behind it, too. Your mileage may vary and all that, but I like what I'm hearing from Broner lately.

Full Coverage Hub: Broner vs DeMarco