By Declan Taylor
ON A rest day at his training camp 8,000 feet above sea level in the mountains on the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado, Edgar Berlanga is growing increasingly animated.
The 27-year-old has not long settled back into camp life following the press tour to officially launch his September 14 showdown with Saul Alvarez in Las Vegas. Put simply, in his own words, โitโs the biggest fight of my lifeโ.
When Boxing News spoke to Berlanga last time out, before he dismissed Padraig McCrory in six rounds at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, he had predicted that a spectacular performance against the Northern Irishman would unlock the Canelo fight. It felt like he was speaking more in hope than expectation but, as it proved, he was bang on the money.
His prediction this time is that Canelo, now 34, will not last much longer than McCrory did. For Berlanga, once the owner of a 16-0 record with all wins coming inside the first round, there is no chance that the Mexican can live with his power.
However, it is put to Berlanga that many opponents have suggested the same. It is hard to dispute that over the course of his 65 professional fights, even against some of his generationโs most devastating punchers in Gennady Golovkin and Sergey Kovalev, Canelo has rarely been properly hurt. Even in his defeats to Floyd Mayweather and Dmitri Bivol, the Mexican never really looked like getting stopped. You could argue that you have to go back to May 2010, when he fought Jose Miguel Cotto, for the last time he had a genuine crisis.
Berlanga bristles. It takes a lot to elicit a reaction from the Brooklyn native, cool as a cucumber and composure personified. Just donโt suggest that stopping Canelo might be a tall order.
โI know he hasnโt faced a puncher like me,โ Berlanga starts. โAnd like I told him in the press conference, I donโt punch like Triple G or anyone else – these are smaller guys. Triple G is only a little dude.
โHe fought a weight-drained Kovalev, touched him with a hook and it looked like he was paralysed. He didnโt fight the Kovalev who fought Andre Ward or the one who was knocking people out with his jab. He weight-drained him. He fought James Kirkland, too, another little guy.
โIโm a big guy, a natural super-middleweight if not light-heavyweight. I knock heavyweights out in the gym sparring. I hurt big guys. I know heโs never felt someone who punches like meโ
Berlanga, by now in full flow, raises his fists to his chin. โAnd the difference between me and him is that I know what Iโm getting. I know heโs going to hit me, I know Iโll get them on the chin, on the arms, in the body. In my head, I understand that, I know Iโll get hit but Iโve got to respond.
โHeโs going in there sleeping on me. He thinks I donโt punch. He thinks because heโs Canelo, heโs a Mexican, he will get touched and keep walking forward but thatโs not going to happen. He fought Jaime Munguia, a little guy.ย
โThe same reason he doesnโt want to fight Benavidez, because he comes in 20lbs over, I come in 20lb over too. Iโm just as big as Benavidez, Iโm a big boy and I could fight at light-heavy if I want to. I could fight at cruiserweight, too, and my power would hang with them. Iโve touched heavyweights and cruiserweights and put them to sleep.
โHe said heโs going to hit me, I know. Come on, hit me. I know youโre going to hit me but are you ready for what Iโve got for you? Weโve got to find out September 14. The way heโs talking, he thinks itโs going to be a walk in the park but we will see on the night.โ
Berlangaโs bullish attitude might also be partly due to the general reaction to this encounter, which was only announced around six weeks out from fight night and has since been hammered by certain sections of social media. David Benavidez, David Morrell and Oscar De La Hoya, for instance, were three of boxingโs big names lining up to have a pop at the matchmaking. So has Berlanga been using the reaction for motivation?
โYeah,โ he replies. โDe La Hoya said some crazy stuff and I went back at him but I just started laughing. Like, fuck it, weโre making each other famous. The more Benavidez talks shit about me, I talk shit about him, Morrell and De La Hoya the same. We are making each other famous, we are giving each other clout. Itโs more promotion for us, weโre getting each other more rich when itโs all said and done. Shout out to De La Hoya, man.
โIโm not surprised. Especially not with Benavidez because heโs a fighter and he will want to go back and forth. We were in the same weight division and he could still come down to 168 so itโs a fight that could still happen in the future. What shocked me was with Oscar, how he came out and ranting. Whatever his beef with Canelo, he then wanted to bring me up.ย
โMeanwhile, he flew in last year to come and sit down to talk to me to try and sign me. He was telling me Iโm the face of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico loves you – he was saying all this. Now he wants to go and say Iโm not a real Puerto Rican, that Iโm from New York and that people from Puerto Rico donโt really like me. Bro, you were just in my face telling me all this stuff. He said we could make the Canelo and Munguia fight happen – Puerto Rico vs Mexico.
โNow heโs talking like that. You know why? Because heโs not involved. And when heโs not involved, heโs being a hater.โ
As Berlanga speaks, there is the occasional interruption from his three-year-old son, Chosen, who has made a flying visit along with his mother, Berlangaโs wife, to training camp.ย
โI saw them in New York for the press conference and that was the first time Iโd seen them for two months,โ he says. โNow I flew them out quick.
โMy son was going crazy when I left New York for LA – โdaddy, daddy, daddyโ. I felt bad so I flew them up here for a few days then Iโll send them back. Iโm locked in now, itโs a gladiator sport and you know what they say, the girls can make you weak, man.
โTheyโll be here for a couple more days then Iโll fly them back and Iโll probably see them in fight week and stuff.โ
What the kid has done is provide his father with some much-needed perspective as he approaches the craziest fight week of his career. Once concerned mainly by jewelry and footwear, the 27-year-old is now driven by the need to provide.
โI donโt think he realises whatโs going on,โ Berlanga says of his son. โBut I know for a fact that Iโm like his idol. He copies everything I do. They got into town yesterday and he came to the gym from the airport.
โHe ran in the ring, jumped on the ropes. He jumps on the ropes, bangs his chest and holds his finger up to the camera. Right now, Iโve got a day off because Iโve done 10 days straight. But heโs like โdaddy, gym, gym, gymโ. He loves the gym
โBut I donโt want him to be a boxer. I want him to be a baseball player. Or he loves music too so letโs see.โ
At three years old, Chosen has no idea of the magnitude of this event but Berlanga is driven by the idea that one day he might.
โItโs amazing really,โ says the dad-of-one. โIโm happy because itโs a great feeling that he can look back on all this. I look at him every day and he just makes me go harder. Knowing that he needs someone to lean on, heโs still young and Iโve got to pave the way for him. Itโs an amazing feeling, man. Iโm happy and Iโm excited to have someone who really looks up to me. Everything I do, he wants to do.
โI wish he was a little bit older, like five or six, so he could really understand whatโs going on because this is the biggest fight of 2024 and the biggest fight of my life. If he was a little bit older he would really understand โdamn, my dad is fighting Caneloโ. But heโs just going with the flow, thatโs my dad, heโs a star, heโs up there.ย
โIโm excited though and this is just the start. A lot of doors will be opening up after this fight so weโre just locked in. I want to create a legacy for myself, my last name and really put Puerto Rico on the map.โ