By Allan Fox: Undefeated super middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga (18-0, 16 KOs) will be having left bicep surgery this Wednesday to repair an injury he sustained in his fight against Marcelo Esteban Coceres on October 9th.
The 24-year-old Berlanga suffered a tear of his left bicep during his grueling 10 round war with Argentian Coceres (30-3-1, 16 KOs) on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Berlanga continued to use his left hand throughout the contest, but he was having difficulty dealing with the offensive firepower from the 30-year-old Coceres.
In the 9th round, Berlanga was dropped by Coceres, and he was hurt several times in the fight.
The judges scored the fight 96-93, 96-93, and 96-93.
With the injury, Berlanga won’t be fighting on the December 9th Top Rank card headlined by Vasily Lomachenko vs. Richard Commey at Madison Square Garden in New York, according to Dan Rafael.
“If everything goes right, he can start boxing in three months, but it depends on how the surgery and rehab goes,” Berlanga’s manager Keith Connolly said to Freaks Unite.
“There’s a good chance he [Berlanga] could fight in March. That’s what we’re aiming for. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll just go to June (in New York) on the Puerto Rican Day parade weekend.”
It would be a good idea for Top Rank to bring Berlanga back slowly against a less ferocious opponent than Coceres because he can’t afford to go through another hard fight like the one he endured on the Fury-Wilder III card.
Berlanga needs a lot of work before he’s ready to take on the talented opposition in the 168-lb division.
Interestingly, during the week of the fight with Coceres, Berlanga referred to himself as a budding star and said he would be fighting Canelo Alvarez soon.
With the way Berlanga performed against Coceres, he’s not likely to ever fight Canelo, especially if he mixes it up with one of the talented contenders in the division.
Watching Berlanga labor through his fight with Coceres and the one before that against Demond Nicholson, it’s obvious why his Top Rank promoters matched him so weakly in his first 16 fights.
Berlanga knocked out his first 16 opponents in the first round, but not because he’s excellent. It was more of a case of his opposition being so woefully poor.
He’s the same age as the 24-year-old David Benavidez, but he trails him badly in development. Benavidez picked up a lot of experience sparring with talented opposition early in his career, which helped him get ready to fight quality opposition almost immediately.
With Berlanga, he’s not ready to fight anyone good because he’ll likely lose. Top Rank should consider matching Berlanga with one of these fighters next:
- Anthony Sims Jr
- John Ryder
- Fedor Chudinov
- Zach Parker
- Aidos Yerbossynuly
- Daniel Jacobs
- Vladimir Shishkin