Alvarez vs. Berlanga Preview
The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada will host a dynamic night of title fights on Saturday, September 14th. The main event is a battle between pound for pound great Canelo Alvarez as he defends his WBC, WBO, and WBA Super middleweight titles against Edgar Berlanga.
Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KO) is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Jaimie Munguia to defend his titles in May. The win was his fourth straight victory and defense of the belts after unsuccessfully challenging Dmitry Bivol for the WBA (Super) light heavyweight title in 2022. The loss was just the second defeat of his career with the first coming to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.
The Mexican fighter has held titles in four weight classes and has unified titles in three divisions. He is the only fighter to become undisputed champion at super middleweight. Despite all his accomplishments Alvarez believes he has something to prove against a new challenger.
"I always take my fights seriously and train 100% no matter who is in there. I always have the same mentality," Alvarez said.
"I will show everybody I'm still the best."
The 34-year-old is confident he will finish the fight on Saturday. “I’m knocking him out in eight rounds, or less,” Canelo said. “He’s a good fighter, he’s strong, but he’s nothing new to me. I have a lot of experience, and he’s going to feel it on Saturday.”
Not only has Alvarez been successful in the ring, he also has achieved elite financial status becoming one of the biggest draws in a boxing era. He has been linked to a fight with the biggest draw in MMA history Conor McGregor. Canelo commented, “Easy money. [I’ll knock him out] at the time I want. One round, two rounds, three rounds, whatever I want,” he said.
When it is all said and done, Alvarez will go down as one of the best boxers in the history of the sport. At 34 years old he is on the back end of his career, but there are still plenty of fighters out there wanting to challenge the champion. The name at the top of that list is undefeated David Benavidez who currently holds the WBC interim light heavyweight belt and is a former WBC super-middleweight champion. Critics believe if Alvarez never faces Benavidez, it will tarnish his legacy.
During his hall of fame career Alvarez has key wins over Jermell Charlo, Gennady Golovkin (twice), Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders, Sergey Kovalev, Daniel Jacobs, Miguel Cotto, Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout, Shane Mosley and Kermit Cintron.
Berlanga (22-0, 17 KO) is coming off a sixth round TKO of Padraig McCrory in February giving him his first finish since 2020. The 27-year-old expects a big result against Alvarez. “I’m going to knock him out in the sixth round,” Berlanga said. “When it’s time to shine, I always come through. This is war.”
It is a bold prediction from Berlanga as Canelo has never been knocked down, let alone stopped in the ring. Berlanga is ready to prove everyone wrong. "There are a lot of doubters out there, people who don't believe in me, but Saturday night I'm going to make them believers," Berlanga said.
"There is fire in my blood and veins to go out there and perform.
"This is the top of the mountain, it doesn't get any bigger, and now it's about me becoming great and putting my last name in the history books forever."
Berlanga is a bigger fighter than Alvarez and he commented on Alvarezs’ abilities in a fight where he is at a size disadvantage. “I see him throwing shots at people’s arms,” Berlanga said. “He started doing that when he started fighting bigger fighters, break the arms down so in the later rounds he can just start connecting. That’s his method all the time, he did it to Munguia. He’ll hit you in the arms, then hit you, hit you, and then he’ll switch it up. That’s how he dropped Munguia. But that jab is his kryptonite. Bivol threw at least like 60 jabs a round.”
This will be the biggest fight of Berlanga’s career and with a win he could produce one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. Canelo holds a rematch clause in the contract in the event of a defeat. Canelo has not yet avenged a loss and rematching a young lion who shocked the world would make for a great storyline in a second fight.
The Undercard:
Erislandy Lara vs. Danny Garcia for Lara’s WBA “super” middleweight title.
Caleb Plant vs. Trevor McCumby for the vacant WBA interim super middleweight title
Rolando Romero vs. Manuel Jaimes
Stephen Fulton vs. Carlos Castro
The main card can be seen on Prime PPV at 8:00 pm ET
