Today, Edgar Berlanga took to social media to express interest in moving up to heavyweight to face Anthony Joshua or IBF champion Daniel Dubois. Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) said he will enter the ring at 210 pounds.
Berlanga has one fight left on his Matchroom contract with Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua. If Hearn wants to make Berlanga a fixture, he will grant him his wish to fight Joshua. It would be a good setup fight for AJ to beat Berlanga in one of the smaller venues around the ring.
The 6’1″ Berlanga reportedly rehydrated to 193 pounds for his recent one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss to WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 14th.
If Berlanga of Brooklyn, New York is serious about wanting to fight Dubois or Joshua, he needs to move up to heavyweight and prove he’s for real by fighting one or two of these fighters:
– Martin Cole
– Zhilei Zhang
–Joseph Parker
– Filip Hrgovic
One or two of them might be willing to accommodate Berlanga if His Excellency Turki Alalshikh would be interested in financing this kind of fighting. It would be circus-level, similar to when Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua fought former UFC champion Francis Ngannou, who had no legitimate business fighting either of them with his lack of experience in boxing.
It is unknown if it was Berlanga’s rehydrated weight, but if so, it would not be a problem for him to move up to heavyweight to face British fighters Joshua or Dubois.
Neither of those heavyweights would be interested in a circus fight against the heavily beaten Berlanga, who looked outmatched against Canelo despite his size advantage against the 5’8″ fighter.
Berlanga needs to show that he can beat the top fighters in his weight class at 168, as he is 0-1 against the only quality guy he has faced in his career. The 27-year-old Berlanga’s CV is poor, filled with lesser guys, none of whom are anywhere near top level.
Ideally, Berlanga should fight the likes of Caleb Plant, Jaime Munguia or Christian Mbilli to show he can beat highly rated super middleweight contenders. It seems obvious that Berlanga is not serious about his professional career and is just looking for money in fights, where he has neither the talent nor experience.
Berlanga should never have been given a chance to fight Canelo for his three titles because he had never beaten anyone with a name to deserve the fight. His best wins were against Britisah fighters Padraig McCrory and Jason Quigley.
I would love to go up to heavyweight and fight Anthony Joshua just to test greatness. Nothing wrong with this. I will walk 210lbs in the ring
— Edgar Berlanga Jr (@EdgarBerlangaJr) September 25, 2024
“In fact, I want to fight Daniel Dubois … Puerto Rico against the United Kingdom,” added Berlanga.
