SUPER-MIDDLEWEIGHT contender Edgar Berlanga is gearing up for a keep busy fight ahead of what promises to be a far more appetizing showdown this summer.
It was announced by Matchroom Boxing yesterday that the 27-year-old will square off against little-known middleweight operator Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz on March 15.
And despite rumours that he was set to headline a show in Puerto Rico, ‘The Chosen One’ will instead feature on the undercard of Austin Williams vs Patrice Volny at the Caribe Royale Orlando, Florida.
Sure enough, the fight itself represents a sizable fall from grace, with Berlanga, 22-1 (17 KOs), coming off a unanimous defeat to super-middleweight king Canelo Alvarez last September.
But while he was floored and comprehensively outboxed by the Mexican, Berlanga nonetheless produced a performance that illustrated his credentials at world level.
In other words, the fact that he was not entirely out of his depth suggested that the Puerto Rican would, at the very least, target a more established opponent for his next assignment.
However, according to his manager, Keith Connolly, it would appear that a more formidable test is likely to arrive later this year.
“Without getting into too much detail, Edgar could have done a main event in March. Instead we did a smaller co-main deal because this deal is going to create an opportunity to do a much bigger fight this summer,” Connolly told boxing journalist Dan Rafael.
Former world champion Caleb Plant has been linked to Berlanga over the past few months, with the pair frequently going back-and-forth over social media.
Indeed, Plant is a name that would certainly whet the appetite of fans while Gonzalez-Ortiz, on the other hand, offers very little by way of intrigue.
What is more interesting, meanwhile, is that, according to Rafael, this chief support bout represents Berlanga’s last fight on his deal with Matchroom.
