Edgar Berlanga affirmatively answered a lot of questions the night of Sept. 14.
Before Berlanga went the distance with clearly his most imposing opponent, the brash Brooklyn native’s critics correctly wondered whether he could compete with a heavily favored fighter at the elite level. His streak of 16 consecutive first-round knockouts had ended three years earlier. Careful matchmaking, going the distance in four straight fights and getting dropped by Marcelo Coceres made many wonder whether the self-anointed “Chosen One” was merely a carefully manufactured contender who would wilt under the brightest lights.
And Berlanga’s harshest skeptics seemed as though they were onto something when Saul “Canelo” Alvarez blasted Berlanga with a left hook that knocked him to the seat of his trunks barely a minute into the third round of that September blockbuster. The shorter superstar’s speed and precise punches frustrated Berlanga, who was more annoyed than hurt from Alvarez’s shot.
Hellbent on proving he belonged, Berlanga rose to his feet and then the occasion. He didn’t win — didn’t come close, frankly.
Boxing’s best super middleweight beat Berlanga by scores of 118-109, 118-109 and 117-110. Only judge David Sutherland scored more than two rounds for Berlanga, who won three rounds according to him.
The official result aside, if ever an unproven fighter won while losing 10 out of 12 rounds on two scorecards, it was Edgar Berlanga. He wasn’t good enough to upset Alvarez six months ago at T-Mobile Arena, but Berlanga demonstrated that he could compete with virtually every other 168-pound contender in the top 10.
Oh, and he made more than $9 million for a fight he entered as an overwhelming +800 underdog on BetMGM lines. His manager, Keith Connolly, is one of this sport’s shrewdest negotiators, thus Berlanga was compensated as if he had accomplished much more than he realistically had before he challenged Alvarez.
Yet for as many questions as Berlanga put to rest in his fight against Alvarez, the 27-year-old contender has done nothing but raise questions in the six months since.
Between Thursday and Friday, Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) began to sound and act as if he has not taken his seemingly overmatched opponent, Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz (20-0-1, 16 KOs), all that seriously.
He wore a ninja mask on stage for the final press conference to promote Matchroom Boxing’s show Saturday night in Orlando, Florida. You couldn’t see his face, but his disdain for promoter Eddie Hearn was obvious.
It bothers Berlanga that he is preparing to fight on middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams’ undercard at Caribe Royale Orlando. His first fight after appearing on the grandest stage imaginable, and Berlanga will box in a co-feature against a blown-up middleweight most American fans haven’t seen fight.
BetMGM lists Berlanga as a 16-to-1 favorite to beat Puerto Rico’s Gonzalez-Ortiz, who has fought just twice in nearly 11 years. The San Juan native didn’t box from May 2014 until March 2024 because he wasted almost 10 years of his physical prime serving time on an armed robbery conviction.
Gonzalez-Ortiz, 35, could really liberate himself by upsetting Berlanga in what is designed as a tune-up fight. But try telling that to Berlanga, who was rather dismissive of his opponent while Matchroom’s Justin Shackil interviewed him after the press conference.
“This is something light here, man,” Berlanga said. “I don’t overlook no opponent, but this is a cakewalk for me. I’ve been at the highest heights of the mountain, my last fight, and I took it very well. I handled it very well. So, this is something light for me right now. I gotta go in there and I just gotta perform and do what I gotta do.”
Berlanga’s handlers insist that he prepared properly for Gonzalez-Ortiz, that he hasn’t looked ahead to higher-profile fights that await if he wins.
“I got three names,” Berlanga said. “I got a hit list, but right now I’m looking at Munguia, Jaime. Hopefully he wins [May] 3rd. Caleb Plant and [Jermall] Charlo. These are the type of fights I want to make in New York. I feel like those three fights deserve to be at the Barclays Center or Madison Square Garden. I’m big [in] New York.”
It isn’t the least bit uncommon for boxers to talk about future opponents prior to a bout. But then Berlanga blew weight Friday morning.
Berlanga and Gonzalez-Ortiz’s contracted weight was the super middleweight limit of 168 pounds because their fight was scheduled to be contested for the NABO belt, one of the WBO’s regional titles. That didn’t stop Berlanga from stepping on the Florida Athletic Commission’s scale at 169.6 pounds.
Berlanga hadn’t missed weight for any of his first 10 fights in this division. Gonzalez-Ortiz officially weighed a career-high 167.4 pounds and looked flabby around his midsection.
His promoters at Warriors Boxing nevertheless believe Gonzalez-Ortiz, though shorter and fighting in a foreign division, is ready to finally realize the potential he displayed prior to his legal troubles.
Berlanga has plans of his own — first and foremost to test free agency after fulfilling his contractual commitment to Hearn’s company.
They squabbled over opponents because Berlanga believed he was supposed to earn seven figures to headline a card in Puerto Rico this past Saturday night.
Their disagreement lingered long enough for Matchroom to scrap that March 8 show in Puerto Rico, which was centered around Berlanga, and moved him to this co-feature. His fight against Gonzalez-Ortiz will pay Berlanga 25 percent of what he would’ve earned to headline a DAZN stream from San Juan.
Berlanga gave away almost 10 percent of that lesser purse to Gonzalez-Ortiz and the Florida commission in the forms of a penalty and fine for missing weight. His handlers remain confident that Berlanga will tear through Gonzalez-Ortiz, who was dropped during the first round of his latest fight, a seventh-round knockout of Dominican veteran Edward Ulloa Diaz this past June 8 at Caribe Royale Orlando.
Gonzalez-Ortiz overcame that first-round knockdown to send Diaz to the canvas once apiece in the sixth and seventh rounds. Berlanga has been dropped by a hard-hitting underdog in Coceres, who, like Gonzalez-Ortiz, primarily competed at middleweight before Berlanga beat him by unanimous decision in a 10-rounder on the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 undercard in October 2021.
This is undoubtedly a step up not only in weight, but in competition, for Gonzalez-Ortiz. Berlanga’s words and actions indicate, though, that his unknown adversary could catch him looking ahead to Munguia, the contemporary Berlanga wants to fight most.
Mexico’s Munguia (44-2, 35 KOs) must first avenge his own upset loss to light-hitting Frenchman Bruno Surace (26-0-2, 5 KOs) when they meet again on the “Canelo” Alvarez vs. William Scull undercard May 3 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Munguia was a 35-to-1 favorite when Marseilles’ Surace shockingly knocked him out in the sixth round of what was designed as a bout to keep Munguia busy this past December in his hometown of Tijuana.
Berlanga obviously knows what happened to Munguia. Those invested in his career can only hope after what has happened the past couple days in Orlando that “The Chosen One” is more mindful of Munguia’s calamitous performance than he has let on.
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