The bad boys of boxing

Aptly named 'The Problem', Adrien Broner is as much known for his notoriety outside the ring as he is his skill set inside it, but he is not the first fighter to have a controversial streak. 

Cincinnati's Broner will take on fellow multi-division world champion Mikey Garcia in a super-lightweight showdown this Sunday morning, live on Sky Sports.
For the 27-year-old, issues away from the sweet science coupled with a flashy, confident persona may have left an undoubted talent feel unfulfilled, But he is not the first to cause problems on both sides of the ropes...

Bernard Hopkins

Nowadays, Bernard Hopkins is marvelled at due to his incredible feat of longevity, the once undisputed king of the middleweight division fighting at the top of the game until the age of 51.
But for 'The Executioner', his journey in boxing really does demonstrate going from the bottom to the top. Time spent in court, hospitals and penitentiaries were a frequent feature of his teenage years, but then he eventually found boxing and it changed his life.

Despite the sport bringing redemption, during a long and distinguished career, Hopkins often became the bad guy, notably against Felix Trinidad, Joe Calzaghe and Jean Pascal among others.
Never shy of shouting insults or taunting opponents, Hopkins also became a somewhat master at employing 'dirty' tactics in the ring and getting away with it, often gaining a psychological advantage over those who went against him.

Mike Tyson

His troubles outside the ring were well documented, but inside the squared circle he was intimidation and ferociousness personified, one of the most devastating punchers the sport has ever seen.
The self-proclaimed 'Baddest Man on the Planet' recorded 12 first-round stoppages in his first 16 professional fights and the emphasis with which Mike Tyson became the youngest world heavyweight champion at the age of 20 in 1986 was prodigious.

The psychology of 'Iron Mike' is a fascinating thing and he would be dragged into raging verbal tirades, whether it be with reporters or opponents alike, often striking fear into those he targeted.
At the height of his career he would spend time away from the ring as problems subsided an incredible career inside it, one that most famously saw him bite the ear of old foe Evander Holyfield in 1997.

Ricardo Mayorga

The famous image of Ricardo Mayorga smoking a cigarette on the cover of America's oldest boxing publication, Ring Magazine, in 2003, says everything you need to know about 'the craziest man in boxing' - a two-weight world champion.



The beer-swigging, hard-hitting pugilist from Nicaragua still fights today at the age of 43, but his fighting days started long before he entered a boxing ring, where a tough start on the poverty-stricken streets of capital city Managua shaped him for such a rash and impetuous career inside the squared circle.

It is the antagonising of fighters before a fight that has been just as entertaining as the bullish boxing ways of 'El Matador', in fact the only thing Mayorga has seemingly ever filtered is his cigarettes.
Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas, Shane Mosley and Miguel Cotto are among the many to have felt the wrath of the aptly named craziest man to ever light up boxing.

Fernando Vargas

One of Mayorga's opponents, brash Californian Fernando Vargas, of Mexican descent, was just as content with playing the bad boy role and often followed the villainous script.
A two-time light-middleweight world champion and the youngest ever fighter to win a title in the division at 21, Vargas' only five career losses would come against boxing greats in Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, Mayorga and Shane Mosley twice. - SKY