By Allan Fox: Edgar Berlanga is being suspended for six months and fined $10,000 for his attempted bite of his opponent Alexis Angulo (27-3, 23 KOs) during their fight last Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.
With the suspension being six months, Berlanga will have a chance to return to the ring in December for the third fight in 2022. That’s not to say that he will, but the opportunity will be there.
Mark Coppinger of ESPN is reporting the impending suspension & $10K fine to be handed down to the 25-year-old Berlanga by the New York State Athletic Commission this week.
The Top Rank promoted super middleweight contender Berlanga won the fight by a 10-round unanimous decision over the 38-year-old Angulo by the scores 98-92, 99-91, and 99-91 in a contest that appeared to be much closer.
Indeed, fans, many of them, saw Angulo as the winner, and they viewed the wide scores as a sick joke.
The scores made Berlanga look worse than he already did, and he didn’t need that after the dreadful performance he put in against a fighter he was supposed to beat with ease, as David Benavidez had done in August 2020.
“Sources: The suspension is for six months and the fine is $10,000. Berlanga will be eligible to return to action on Dec. 11, so he could still fight three times in 2022,” said Mike Coppinger on Twitter.
When Top Rank does bring Berlanga back, they need to match him against primary fighters that aren’t a threat to beating because he can’t continue to luck out with the scoring. It’ll hurt Berlanga’s popularity, and eventually, the judges will get it right, and he’ll lose.
“I like that he was using his jab. This was something that we had wanted him to do, and he was using it more liberally than usual. He could have used it a bit more. I would have liked to have seen him throw more combinations a bit more, let his hands go in threes and fives, and then step around his opponent,” said Edgar Berlanga’s former coach Andre Rozier to Fighthype, when asked about his thoughts on his win over Alexis Angulo.
“Angulo is a tough guy, an old veteran and he comes to you, so there was no need to try and look for him because he was looking for some prey. He was looking for Edgar.
“Saying that, he should have been cutting angles on him. He’s a tough guy, hard to knock out. Boxing should have been the phrase that was used for the fight.
“I knew he was going to be very tough,” Rozier said of Angulo. “His only stoppage was in his fight against David Benavidez, and David Benavidez is a big volume puncher. He stays busy and stays very aggressive.
“So, these are new areas for Edgar to be learning from and exploring, and just the rounds were good for him,” said Rozier.
