Edgar Berlanga said after his loss to Canelo Alvarez that he’d fought a “war” with the Mexican star, losing a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision fight at the T-Mobile in Las Vegas. After the fight, Berlanga said he wants a rematch with Canelo in 2025 after he wins the IBF title. Good luck with that.
Berlanga glorified his performance afterward as if he were talking about another person because he didn’t fight bravely. This was not a courgeous performance that showed that Berlanga was ready to go out on his shield.
I saw a reluctant fighter, Berlanga, who appeared to weigh in the 200-lb range, afraid to open up with his offense and mostly just throwing jabs all night. There was nothing from Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) that resembled a fighter going to war. There was nothing from Berlanga that showed that he’d gone to war. It looked like a fighter hiding in a foxhole, afraid to come out.
“I know I won the world after this performance. We gave the fight the fans wanted to see a war,” said Edgar Berlanga during the post-fight press conference, reflecting on his loss to Canelo Alvarez last Saturday night.
That was a weak moral victory for Berlanga, going 12 rounds but losing every round of the fight in the eyes of many boxing fans. I had it 11-1 for Canelo. I only gave Berlanga winning one round when Canelo was messing toying with him in the eighth round.
It didn’t look like Canelo was serious during that round, and Berlanga took advantage of the lull in offense from the Mexican warrior to land a few right hands and jabs.
“I’m ready for whoever in the 168-lb division. I was trying to get him tired kind of like the rope a dope thing. I showed the world that I’m ready for the big leagues. I’m ready to stamp my name in the sport of boxing and become a legend, and take over. We went the distance, and we fought a hell of a fight,” said Berlanga to Matchroom Boxing.
Berlanga is kidding himself. He’s not ready for the “big leagues” at 168, and would lose to half a dozen contents in the weight class. As big as Berlanga is, he should be fighting at 175 because he’s clearly a light heavyweight and is a weight bully.
The punches that Berlanga took from the much smaller Canelo would have reduced him to meteor dust if he got hit with them by light heavyweights like Artur Beterbiev, David Morrell, or David Benavidez.
