Hearn says Berlanga will be ‘different fighter’ after Canelo fight

Eddie Hearn told Edgar Berlanga he will be a “different fighter” from this point on after his performance against Canelo Alvarez last weekend. Matchroom promoter Hearn told Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) he’s never fought like this and has upped his game.

Hearn is planning a makeover fight for Berlanga for New York or Puerto Rico in early 2025. That fight is not expected to be a high-level opponent to rebuild the 27-year-old Berlanga.

Berlanga seemingly lost every round, but the judges gave him a few mercy rounds that he didn’t rate in his one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss to unified super middleweight champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) at the T -Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“You never boxed near that level. It will improve you. That level is so far above everyone else,” said Eddie Hearn Matchroom Boxingand praised Edgar Berlanga after his loss to Canelo Alvarez last Saturday night.

“You matched him in rounds. You never looked out of your depth, ever. Now, when you fight somebody else, you’re going to be a different fighter,” Hearn said.

What helped Berlanga not look worse was his massive size. His rehydrated weight of 193 lbs gave him an edge over Canelo, allowing him to take shots he wouldn’t be able to handle if he were fighting a guy his size at light heavyweight or cruiserweight. If it was Jai Opetaia or Artur Beterbiev, who Berlanga was fighting, he wouldn’t be able to handle the shots.

“You were unfortunate because you hit him on the forehead there because if you hit him on the chin you would have knocked him out,” Hearn said of Canelo walking away from Berlanga in the final seconds of one of the later rounds. have. , on his way to his corner. Berlanga chased Canelo and hit him just as the round ended, making the start look bad.

Hearn blew smoke in Berlanga’s back by telling him he would have knocked Canelo out if he had hit him on the chin at the end of the round. Even if Berlanga landed on the chin, it wouldn’t have done anything to Canelo because his feet weren’t set, and he ran across the ring to get a cheap shot.

What Hearn doesn’t say is that Canelo came out for the next round and really put it on Berlanga, paying him back for the cheap shot by landing numerous power shots that hurt him. As the round ended, Berlanga staggered back to his corner.