Edgar Berlanga has nothing to lose against unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 14 in their main event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) will never be given another chance against Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) if he doesn’t win or get a draw.
Most fans believe that Canelo chose Berlanga because he is not a threat based on his performance against limited opposition. It’s up to Berlanga to prove the fans wrong by beating Canelo and upsetting the odds.
“I’m intrigued by this fight and how he approached it. Berlanga brought a pretty good trash talk game,” Chris Algieri told the Probox TV YouTube channel. “He hasn’t shown this depth in that aspect of his game until now, in the biggest showcase of his career, under the brightest lights he’s been in.”
As a New Yorker, Berlanga’s ability to talk trash came from his upbringing. When you live in New York, criticism becomes second nature. Berlanga is in his element, off the leash in attack mode.
“He’s really stood up to these press conferences and made it entertaining to tune in to these press conferences, which are often very boring, especially when you’re fighting a legend like Canelo. I can remember Jaime Munguia and Canelo, who looked like they were having a hug fest when they did their press conferences,” Algieri said.
The difference between Berlanga’s press conferences and those involving Munguia is like night and day. Munguia did very little to attract interest in his recent fight against Canelo on May 4th. He was so polite and didn’t talk trash at all. I think it hurt the promotion of the fight. Canelo couldn’t promote the contest on his own without receiving static from Munguia, and that ended up hurting the PPV numbers.
“We don’t get it. There is no love lost between these two, and it mostly comes from the Berlanga side. That makes it interesting. Plus, the fact that he’s so big. You see these guys standing next to each other. You see the size difference. You see the youthful vitality of Berlanga, and listen, he has nothing to lose,” Algieri said.
Berlanga’s size could play a role in this fight if he hasn’t cut weight because in his recent fights he looked like a light heavyweight on fight night. Berlanga got down to 168 this week, and looked very lean, and you can tell he’s going to look emaciated this Friday at the weigh-in. If he can get the weight off and back on without getting drained, it could be an interesting fight as long as it lasts.
Nothing to lose, everything to gain
“The guy can hit. He’s big, he can punch, and he’s got nothing to lose. He talks the right talk. If he can hit the right stride, he can make this fight interesting in the first few rounds. We’ll see what happens after that, because the biggest difference here is obviously the experience and world-class opposition that Canelo has been with throughout his career,” said Algieri.
Berlanga knows he has nothing to lose because he won’t get a second chance against Canelo if he gets beaten. This is the only guy at 168 that Berlanga can make big money to fight, unless David Benavidez wants to return to the division to fight him. I don’t know why he would come at a loss as Berlanga.
“All in all, I think it’s an interesting fight, and I think it’s going to be more entertaining than people gave it credit for when it was first announced,” Algieri said.
This could be an exciting fight if Berlanga can survive the big punches Canelo will throw at him in the early stages. Canelo will unload on Berlanga if he jumps out quickly and hits him with something big that angers him or gets his competitive instincts into gear.
It could be an early night if Berlanga gets out of the gate quickly as Canelo will hit him with shots he has never experienced.
