By Charles Brun: Highly sought-after unbeaten super middleweight Edgar Berlanga (20-0, 16 KOs) has agreed to sign a multi-fight deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing to fight on DAZN, with the plan of eventually facing Canelo Alvarez by next year.
Hearn’s signing of Berlanga has short-term money-grab written all over it. That is to say, Hearn can make quick money with Berlanga by feeding him against a couple of stiffs and then throwing him in with Canelo for the third & final fight of his contract before cutting him adrift after he gets blown out of the water.
Berlanga targeting Gary O’Sullivan
The Brooklyn, New York native Berlanga recently parted ways with his former promoters at Top Rank. They reportedly wanted to match him against Jesse Hart, but he wanted an arguably better opponent John Ryder.
You can’t blame Berlanga for not wanting to fight Hart (28-3, 22 KOs) because there’s a high probability that he would have lost to him. Hart came close to beating Joe Smith Jr. and Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, and those guys are worlds better than Berlanga.
They also planned on moving Berlanga from headlining to cards to being a co-feature fighter, which could have meant a sizable pay cut.
Berlanga, who has been out of action since June of 2022, is expected to fight in the next couple of months. Last week, Berlanga said he wanted to get his “feet wet” by taking a warm-up fight to shake the rust off against 38-year-old middleweight Gary O’Sullivan (31-5, 21 KOs) before looking to fight the likes of John Ryder or Jaime Munguia. After that, Berlanga wants Canelo Alvarez.
Hearn mentioned wanting Berlanga to prove himself against top-tier opposition to earn a fight against Canelo. If Berlanga is going to be fighting O’Sullivan and/or Munguia, those aren’t 168-pounders. They fight in the 160-lb weight class, and they’re not the ideal opposition that would prove that Berlanga is deserving well-paying cash-out fight against a superstar like Canelo.
For Berlanga to prove himself as deserving of a fight against Canelo, he should fight two of these 168-pound fighters:
- Demetrius Andrade
- David Morrell
- Diego Pacheco
- David Benavidez
- Caleb Plant
Berlanga fighting 38-year-old O’Sullivan doesn’t prove he deserves a fight against Canelo. Of course, if you’re looking at it from Hearn’s position, it’s NOT a good idea for him to match the badly flawed Berlanga against any of those fighters because he’ll likely lose. As a result, Hearn won’t benefit from the multi-fight contract that he’s giving to Berlanga.
Hearn likely to match Berlanga softly
What Hearn will likely do is put Berlanga in with a couple of bottom-level fringe contenders, be it at 160 or 168, and then set him up with the Canelo fight. With Berlanga being popular in the New York area, a fight between him and Canelo will sell many tickets.
What it WON’T do is sell a ton of PPV buys on DAZN because Berlanga isn’t popular nationwide in the U.S. Like Terence Crawford, Berlanga’s popularity is isolated to his hometown.
Berlanga is coming off a six-month suspension for attempting to bite his last opponent Roamer Alexis Angulo last June in a Top Rank card at Madison Square Garden in New York. Like with his previous three opponents, Berlanga struggled with Angulo and seemed to lose patience when he couldn’t knock him out.
In Berlanga’s previous three fights, he was taken the distance by Steve Rolls, Marcelo Esteban Coceres, and Demond Nicholson. Berlanga did not perform well against any of those three fighters, and he came close to losing to the 38-year-old Rolls.
After those four performances, it’s understandable why Top Rank wanted to take their time in developing Berlanga because he showed that he was not ready to take on the better opposition.
One can argue that Berlanga might do well against a fighter like Ryder because he’s not an A-level contender at 168. He’s just some guy that beat an old Daniel Jacobs and an unproven Zach Parker to put himself in position for a Caneelo fight in May.
But Top Rank wouldn’t have dared match Berlanga against any of the talented 168-pound contenders like Benavidez, Plant, Pacheco, or Andrade. The outcome would have been bad for Berlanga.