Gabe Rosado is excited to potentially fight Edgar Berlanga, the former super middleweight world title challenger, in Puerto Rico next year.
New Yorker Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) and Rosado are both of Puerto Rican descent but were born in the U.S. They are expected to fight on the island next in what would be a Matchroom Boxing promoted card on DAZN be.
19-year-old professional Rosado (26-17-1, 15 KOs) hasn’t won a fight in four years since his upset third-round knockout victory over Bektemir Melikuziev on June 19, 2021.
Berlanga suffered his first pro loss, losing to unified 168-lb champion Canelo Alvarez on September 14 in Las Vegas. It was pretty one-sided for the most part, but Berlanga, 27, made it competitive with his sheer size. He apparently rehydrated to 193 pounds after weigh in at 167 3/4 lbs.
That’s a weight gain of 25.25 pounds after rehydration. Canelo dropped Berlanga in the third round, but then it looked like he let his foot off the accelerator instead of going for the knockout. Some people believe that Canelo wore Berlanga.
They felt Alvarez didn’t want to be criticized for knocking out the Brooklyn, New York native, as he had already been mocked for picking him over more proven fighters like David Benavidez and David Morrell.
The scores
118-109
117-110
118-109
Fans would prefer Berlanga to fight a real contender rather than 38-year-old contender Rosado for his next fight, but it would be too risky to put him with a top-15 man. Berlanga is already talking about picking up a quick win and then fighting Jaime Munguia to get a rematch with Canelo.
It might take more than beating Rosado and Munguia for Berlanga to get a second fight against Alvarez, but you can’t blame him for at least wanting to try. Berlanga’s purse for that fight was $3 million, and he likely made additional money from the PPV. It generated a reported 650,000 purchases. These are excellent numbers.
“It’s a fight for me that’s a dream fight just because I’ve never fought in Puerto Rico,” Gabe Rosado said. MillCity Boxing about him possibly fighting the New Yorker Edgar Berlanga in 2025 in Puerto Rico. “I live in Puerto Rico for half a year. I have a house out there. So, I’m always there.
“I tell you, it will put another battery in my back. You have the legends like Cotto, Tito (Trinidad and Amanda Serrano out there. It’s so good for the sport. Puerto Rican boxing is getting back on the map because you have so much great talent now.
“You have Berlanga, and you have the vet, Gabe Rosado. Putting us in PR, the island will love it. You have two Boricuas from the States coming back to Puerto Rico,” Rosado said of him and Berlanga. “It would be history, it would be a stupid event. There’s no real difference between being in Puerto Rico and being in Philly.”
Fans outside of the East Coast would prefer to see Berlanga fight someone a little younger than the 38-year-old Rosado next. Rosado’s 17 losses make it difficult to take him and this fight seriously. This strengthens the argument that former Top Rank promoted Berlanga is just a manufactured hype job created to sell tickets in the New York area.
It would be more interesting for fans outside of the New York area if Berlanga were to fight one of these contenders next:
– Osleys Iglesias
– Kaleb plant
– Christian Mbilli
– Diego Pacheco
– Erik Bazinian
– Bruno Surace
