On the backlash he suffered after his early knockout streak slowed, Edgar Berlanga said boxing fans quickly changed their opinion of him once he started going the distance more often.
“It was a good thing and a bad thing. It wasn’t my fault that I knocked people out in the first round,” Berlanga said. The Danza Project. “The good thing was that I blew up quickly in the sport. But the bad thing was that once I wasn’t knocking people out, it was like, ‘Oh, he’s a bum. He’s no good.’ They just looked at all my flaws. They didn’t appreciate me. I gave everybody knockouts. Knockouts. Knockouts. Once I started walking the distance, that changed quickly. This is New York. They say, ‘He’s lost it. He’s done.’”
Berlanga opened his professional career with 16 straight first round knockouts and quickly became one of boxing’s most talked about young punchers during his rise to super middleweight. The streak helped turn him into a major draw in New York and among Puerto Rican boxing fans, but expectations surrounding him also changed once opponents began surviving the early rounds.
During the same interview with The Danza Project, Berlanga compared boxing fan culture to the UFC, arguing that MMA fans still support stars after losses while boxing fans often abandon fighters much faster.
“That’s why I love the UFC. The UFC fans are die-hard fans. Even the casual ones are,” Edgar said. “Once they like you, they support you. Conor McGregor can announce a fight now, and it’s going to sell out. Boxing fans, you get one loss, and it’s forgotten.”
Berlanga recently signed with Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing following losses to Saul Alvarez and Hamzah Sheeraz, and has repeatedly said he believes the move will help rebuild his career and reconnect him with casual sports fans.
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Last updated on 2026/05/07 at 20:44
