Broner vs Escobedo: Team Escobedo Walks Away From Negotiations

Ernest Gabion is reporting now that tonight's scheduled HBO main event between Adrien Broner and Vicente Escobedo has been called off, as Team Escobedo has walked away from last-ditch negotiations with Broner's manager Al Haymon:

"Haymon went to team Escobedo and apologized for his fighters lack of respect. Team Escobedo said that it's not the money it's the fairness ... They felt they weren't being treated fairly so fight is off officially."

There probably is still some chance that this will happen, since Al Haymon is Al Haymon and a lot of powerful people would prefer this fight go on tonight, but apparently it's nothing to do with money. Escobedo just does not feel like he's being given a fair shake here.

For Escobedo, this is a serious call. All reports are that he was being offered plenty of money to go ahead with the fight, after Broner blew yesterday's weigh-in and today's, but he's making a stand here on principle. It might be a little crazy to walk away from a good payday, but I can't help but have huge respect for this decision.

Gabion also says that Escobedo's team considered the fight to be off this morning when Broner again missed weight, but that Broner's team kept coming back with offers. Maybe it's silly of me, but I read all of this as a spoiled network brat not getting his way, and even Haymon couldn't save it. So I have to admit this pleases me on some level.

No official word has come down about the HBO broadcast, but earlier talk was that it would go on anyway, with Keith Thurman vs Orlando Lora in the main event slot. Since HBO already has everything set up in Cincinnati, chances are they'd like to have a show tonight, even if it's subpar.