By Dan Ambrose: Matchoom promoter Eddie Hearn says he’ll be making an offer to Golden Boy fighter Jaime Munguia and his guy, super middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga fight next. Hearn believes that if Berlanga (21-0, 16 KOs) wins, he’ll be facing Canelo Alvarez next year.
According to Hearn, DAZN wants the Berlanga vs. Munguia fight, and he believes that makes it possible that it can happen.
However, Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya didn’t sound eager to make that fight recently following Berlanga’s twelve round unanimous decision win over Jason Quigley last month on June 24th. In reacting to Hearn saying he wanted Berlanga to fight Munguia next, De La Hoya said, ‘Good luck.”
Hearn isn’t taking no for an answer, and with him frequently mentioning DAZN as the ones that will decide if the Berlanga-Munguia fight will happen, it sounds like Golden Boy has no choice but to make this fight next, whether they want to or not.
Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs) has to take the training wheels eventually, as he’s a 10-year pro and he’s still fighting starter competition, and it’s troubling that a guy with 42 fights under his belt it still facing weak played-out old veterans, shot to bits.
Berlanga (21-0, 16 KOs) looked absolutely awful in his recent fight against Irish fighter Quigley, laboring to an impressive 12 round decision, getting outboxed in many of the rounds, and reaffirming in the minds of the fans that he a manufactured hype job to sell tickets by his previous promoters Top Rank.
DAZN will decide if Berlanga-Munguia happens
“Less likely for the spring, but we’ll see what happens,” said Eddie Hearn to Fighthype about Edgar Berlanga not likely to fight Canelo Alvarez in the first quarter of 2024 now that he’s signed with PBC for a three-fight deal.
“Really, we want to make Edgar Berlanga. We think that’s a great fight, and if Edgar wins that fight, which I think he does, you won’t be able to stop him from taking a Canelo Alvarez fight.
“I think it’ll be huge. Whether that’s with us and the PBC or when Canelo finishes his multi-fight deal, I think that’s an option as well,” said Hearn.
If Canelo fights the 226-year-old Berlanga without first facing David Benavidez or David Morrell Jr, the backlash will be so huge that his head will spin. If Canelo thinks he’s getting it now for fighting the soft-touch John Ryder or hand-picking Jermell Charlo from the 154-lb division, just wait until he chooses Berlanga.
Fighting him without first facing Benavidez and/or Morrell would taint Canelo’s legacy, making him look like a career-long cherry-picker.
What Hearn should be doing is trying to build Berlanga into a good fighter by putting him in against increasingly better competition instead of being in a mad hurry for a cash-out fight that he doesn’t deserve against Canelo.
Does Berlanga deserve a fight against Canelo? Nope. If Hearn wants Berlanga to fight Canelo, he should run the gauntlet through these killers first to EARN the fight:
1. David Morrell Jr
2. Demetrius Andrade
3. David Benavidez
4. Dmitry Bivol
5. Janibek Alimkhanuly
6. Artur Beterbiev
“Yeah, it’s down to DAZN,” said Hearn when asked if he thinks he can work out a deal for a fight between Berlanga and Munguia. DAZN has told us they waant to make Berlanga against Munguia.
So there it is. Golden Boy has no choice but to let Hearn have Munguia for Berlanga’s tackling dummy to give him some false credibility to fight Canelo.
If Hearn can do this to force Golden Boy to allow him to use Munguia as Berlanga’s next opponent, you got to wonder if there’s anyone else in De La Hoya’s stable that Eddie wants to pick from to feed to one of his Matchroom stable fighters.
If Hearn can force Golden Boy to allow him to pick apart his stable, using it as a farm system for his Matchroom fighters, it puts De La Hoya in a tough position, weakening his company and cleaning it out.
“Frank Smith [of Matchroom] had a meeting with [Golden Boy Promotions president] Eric Gomez in Los Angles to talk about that fight,” said Heaarn about the Berlanga vs. Munguia talks. “They’re up for the fight, and so is DAZN.
“I’ve talked to Keith Connolly, and we’re going to be putting an offer to Edgar Berlanga for that fight. I guess they’ll be putting an offer to Munguia. Let’s see if we can make it happen.
“It’s a 50-50 fight. I just think Edgar wins. It’s a war. It’s Mexico vs. Puerto Rico. It’s such a tremendous style match-up as well. So let’s try and make it happen,” said Hearn about the Berlanga vs. Munguia fight, which may not happen.
