By Robert Segal: Edgar Berlanga wants to win an emphatic fashion to make a statement against Jason Quigley this Saturday, June 24, in his debut with Matchoom at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The unbeaten super middleweight Berlanga (20-0, 16 KOs) wants to show the fans and his new promoter Eddie Hearn that he’s “dangerous” by knocking out the 32-year-old Quigley (20-2, 14 KOs), who has been brought in for him to get a warm-up bout in after being inactive for the last twelve months.
It’s important for the 26-year-old Berlanga to look good against Quigley so that he can show Hearn that he’s ready to be matched against the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in September or early next year.
Ideally, Hearn would like to have Berlanga get a couple of fights under his belt to better prepare him for Canelo, but if he blitzes Quigley in the first round, it’s possible that he could be matched against the Mexican star in September.
Canelo still doesn’t have an opponent for his next fight, so there’s a possibility that he could go in the direction of Berlanga if he looks out of this world good against Quigley.
“With me, I was always a pretty boy. People take it the wrong way. People take it as if I’m cocky,” said Edgar Berlanga to Matchroom Boxing.
“I feel like if I don’t succeed in what I do and I don’t make it happen for myself, then what story I got to tell him when he’s older?” said Berlanga about his son.
“I’m not going to try to get my son a sad story, either, like, ‘Yeah, your father was a fighter, and you know he could have made it.’ I want to be that man. I want to be that father. I said, listen, I did this, I did that, and I made it happen, sacrificing right now everything in my life, not seeing my kid and my baby boy,” said Berlanga.
Edgar needs to show the fans that he’s NOT the hype job that some feel he is, and he’s not some guy that his former promoters at Top Rank manufactured with their soft match-making.
When boxing fans look at the level of opponents that Berlanga was matched against first in his first sixteen pro fights by Top Rank, they feel the promotional company intentionally pulled the wool over the unsuspecting casual fans by feeding him stiffs.
If Berlanga can destroy Quigley and one other fighter, preferably a high-ranked one, he’ll prove he’s a genuine talent.
“I’m in a place where nobody wants to be, and I feel like that’s what’s going to make the difference,” said Berlanga.
“June 24th is the day they’re going to be, like, ‘Damn, we have a dangerous guy at 168.‘ That first round knockout streak, I miss it a little bit,” said Berlanga.
“He’s a strong fighter. That’s what everybody is saying about him. He’s strong, but in his last four fights, he hasn’t made a big dent in his opponents the way he did in his previous ones,” said Jason Quigley about Berlanga.
There’s no question that the knockouts have disappeared in Berlanga’s last four fights, but that could be because he was dealing with a bicep injury. It’s hard to knock guys out when you’ve got a bicep problem like the one Berlanga had.
“In a way, it’s kind of a manufactured record. It would be quite easy to knock out 16 people in a row if you’re fighting the right people,” said Andy Lee about Berlanga winning his first sixteen pro fights by first round knockouts.
The first sixteen opponents Berlanga fought were definitely the weak variety, but still, no one knocks out guys like that unless they have major talent.