By: Sean Crose
This weekend boxing fans are getting the fight Canelo Alvarez wanted. While it’s true fans would have been happy if Canelo had chosen to face powerhouse David Benavidez on Saturday night, this is Canelo’s world we’re living in it. Therefore, the future Hall of Famer will be facing Edgar Berlanga in a pay per view main event in Vegas. Give Canelo credit, he’s made a career of facing one major challenge after another. What’s more, Berlanga, is a confident, young, undefeated contender who knows how to turn out the lights. It’s worth remembering that boxing is a sport where virtually anything can happen. Still, the public clearly would have preferred Canelo face a more highly regarded opponent than Berlanga this Mexican Independence Day weekend.
Canelo is popular and powerful enough within the sport to call the shots, though. Few would argue he hasn’t earned the right to pick and choose whoever he wants to face from here on out. And so Berlanga it is. There’s absolutely no doubt that this is the chance of a lifetime for New Yorker Berlanga. Is there a chance he can win, though? Provided there’s always a chance for an upset in boxing, a Berlanga upset doesn’t seem likely. Then again, it wouldn’t be an upset if people suspected it might well happen.
With that being said, Berlanga has stopped all but five of his opponents. Berlanga also fights with an impressive degree of patience. Here is a man who trusts his own abilities, an essential quality for a professional boxer to have. About that knockout ratio, though, Berlanga’s five decision victories have all come about in his most recent fights – with the exception of Berlanga’s last bout, which saw him stop Padraig McCrory in six. Suffice to say, Canelo is no McCrory.
Yet Canelo is also arguably no longer the fighter he once was. At least that’s what they say. The truth is, they say a lot. It’s hard to ignore the fact that Canelo has won his past four fights and that his last defeat came at the gloved fists of light heavyweight Dmitry Bivol – a monumental challenge for Canelo if ever there was one. Here’s the thing – Canelo is a thunderous body puncher with world class footwork, patience to burn and the confidence that comes with it. He can also, of course, turn out the lights like it’s nobody’s business.
Berlanga will go for broke, but unless Canelo suddenly aged a dozen years overnight, the legendary fighter will knock the younger man out in eight.