By Charles Brun: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn was pleased with the performance of super middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga in his twelve round unanimous decision win over Jason Quigley last Saturday night at the Hula Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Berlanga’s skills last night looked ordinary, and his ring IQ was on the lower end of the spectrum, existing at a more primitive level of a non-contender.
Hearn says the 26-year-old Berlanga will be much better against the opposition coming forward, trying to knock him out.
Berlanga needs fighters that come forward
What Hearn didn’t say is that the only type of fighters that will be coming straight at Berlanga, looking to punch his lights out, are David Morrell Jr and David Benavidez. Those guys would actually stop Berlanga with ease and make him look like the hype job that many boxing fans see him as.
Obviously, Hearn isn’t going to let Berlanga anywhere near those two because they would massacre him. Berlanga is a good mid-level 168-lb contender, but he’s not on the level of Morrell or Benavidez, and he likely never will make those fights.
You can argue that Hearn’s recent signee Diego Pacheco would beat Berlanga as well if he dared to make that fight. Pacheco looks like a far greater talent. The reason why Hearn isn’t going to make that fight is because he wants to make sure Berlanga keeps winning for as long as possible.
They would wreck Hearn’s dreams of one day putting Berlanga in with Canelo Alvarez in a cash-out fight to make a boatload of money in what would likely be a losing effort.
The ONLY reason Berlanga succeeded against Quigley last night is that the Irish fighter kept foolishly backing up against the ropes, looking for opportunities to counter the slow, lumbering Edgar.
The Matchroom boss Hearn sounded hopelessly deluded after the fight, talking about wanting to set up a fight between Berlanga and Jaime Munguia or Gennadiy Golovkin next. Eddie’s mind was up in the clouds after the fight, talking about his dream vision that had no chance of ever happening in this lifetime.
For Hearn to want to make those fights, he obviously thinks Berlanga can beat them. If he thought there was any chance that he would love to Munguia & Golovkin, he wouldn’t be wasting his breath talking up, wanting to make those fights next.
Munguia is horrible, so it’s not shocking that Hearn wants him next for Berlanga. Golovkin is a natural 160-pounder and is so old now that he would be vulnerable for those two reasons.
This writer hates to shoot holes through Hearn’s vision, but the cold, brutal reality is, GGG & Munguia will NOT be fighting Berlanga next, and I’ll go one step further. They will NEVER fight him in a million years.
Those guys are not going to fight Berlanga because they are in different parts of the universe than him. Munguia is with Golden Boy, and that’s all you need to say.
Quigley boxed well
Hearn acknowledges that Berlanga (21-0, 16 KOs) didn’t fight effectively during long stretches of the fight, but he was happy with how he came on in the twelfth to drop Quigley (20-3, 14 KOs) twice.
Although only one of the knockdowns was legit due to him pushing Quigley to the canvas on the second of two in the twelfth, he still had the Irish fighter badly hurt and close to being stopped.
“I thought it was a good performance. I think he went very quiet in the fight between rounds seven and eleven,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV, discussing his thoughts about his newly signed super middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga after his less-than-outstanding win over Jason Quigley last Saturday night.
“I don’t really know what he [Berlanga] was doing. He was following Jason Quigley around. He boxed very well, by the way. He [Quigley] was difficult, awkward, and very smart, but when Edgar let his hands go, he hurt Quigley all the time.
“He’s very heavy-handed. The 12th round was scintillating. I think it was the second round or the third round when he knocked him down. It was a great knockdown as well, but he [Berlanga] just went very quiet sort of mid to the end of the way through to fight.
“So it was a good performance, a good 12 rounds after being out for a year, and on we go. Yeah, you always want to knock out, but three knockdowns, a good fight, and a good 12 rounds. I’m happy. I would have rather he got the fight down and dusted halfway through or whatever.
“It was good that he got 12 rounds in. I don’t think his coaches were really happy with his output in the backend of the stages of the fight. The 12th round was perfect. We wanted to see what he did in the 12th round earlier in the fight.
“So I think against people that are coming forward and coming to try and knock him out, I think you’re going to see a different performance,” said Hearn.
