Berlanga Reveals His Shortcut Plan For Canelo Rematch: Win IBF Title

Edgar Berlanga revealed his scheme to get a fast rematch with Canelo Alvarez by capturing the IBF super middleweight title. It’s a sneaky, weasel-like strategy that Berlanga has dreamed up, with almost no chance of being successful in getting the rematch with Canelo.

It’s unclear if Berlanga cooked up the idea himself or his management came up with it to get a quick second payday fight against Canelo, but it seems half-baked.

The Matchroom-promoted Berlanga believes that if he can win the IBF belt, he and Canelo can meet for the undisputed 168-lb championship next year.

The U.S. boxing public doesn’t care as much about titles. They want to see great fights between popular fighters winning, not losing, one-sided fights, as we saw with Berlanga last night. After his loss to Canelo, Berlanga needs to do much more than just win the IBF title to get a rematch with the Mexican star.

Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) was outclassed last Saturday night, losing a wide 12-round unanimous decision to WBA, WBC, and WBO super middleweight champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The scores were 118-109, 118-109 and 117-110. Berlanga mostly threw jabs and was unwilling to throw power shots. Berlanga displayed a good chin as he soaked up a lot of hard shots from Canelo. One reason for that was Berlanga’s size.

Edgar looked like a light heavyweight inside the ring last night and had a huge size advantage over Canelo. With the extra weight, Berlanga could take shots that he wouldn’t be able to take if he were fighting in the 175-lb division against Artur Beterbiev. The way Berlanga fought last night, Artur Beterbiev would have knocked him out in three rounds.

Berlanga feels he fought well enough that fans will want to see him and Canelo run it back next year.

Berlanga is trying to take a shortcut to a fast rematch against Canelo for a second giant payday by capturing the IBF title by beating the winner of the October 19th fight between William Scull and Vladimir Shishkin.

It’s understandable why Berlanga is targeting the IBF title as a backdoor route to a lucrative rematch against Canelo. Those two fighters, Shishkin and Scull, are very beatable and would likely lose to many of the top 10 contenders.

#1 Scull and #2 Shishkin meet for the vacant IBF 168-lb title next month on October 19th in Germany. If Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn can set up a fight between the winner of that fight and Berlanga, the New Yorker can potentially capture the IBF title.

Even with the IBF title, Berlanga’s popularity won’t increase much because Scull and Shishkin aren’t well-known to U.S. fans. Berlanga has got to do much more than just beat the likes of Scull or Shishkin to increase rapid interest in a second fight with Canelo.

Alvarez would be losing money by fighting Berlanga again because a rematch won’t sell to the U.S. public after what they saw last Saturday night. Berlanga lost every round of the fight and was like an overmatched punching bag. He was not the next Gennadiy Golovkin or Miguel Cotto. He was Munguia 2.0, and fans don’t want to pay to watch a rematch between Canelo and him either.

“I know the IBF is out there. So whoever wins the IBF, I’d like to fight the winner of them. I think it’s [Vladimir] Shishkin and William Scull fighting for the IBF. So whoever wins that, I’d like to go grab that title, and then see if we can do a rematch with Canelo next year for the undisputed,” said Edgar Berlanga to the Matchroom Boxing channel about his plans following his loss to Canelo Alvarez last Saturday night.

Capturing the IBF super middleweight title against the obscure fighters, Scull or Shishkin won’t be enough for Berlanga to get a fast rematch against Canelo. Unless the Mexican superstar feels generous and wants to help Berlanga, he can make more money fighting other fighters.

The fights fans want to see from Canelo:

• David Benavidez
• Terence Crawford
• Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev winner

“I know he’ll [Canelo] give me an opportunity. It was an amazing fight. So, I’m going to talk to him to see if he can wait and let me try and beat one of these guys. Capture the IBF so I can be world champion, and we can run an undisputed for real now,” said Berlanga.

You can understand why Berlanga wants to get a second payday against Canelo, but you have to earn it. Going to an easy route to get that second mega-million payday is weak. If Berlanga wants the rematch with Canelo, he’s got to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice by taking on David Benavidez, David Morrell, Beterbiev, Bivol, Christian Mbilli, or Osleys Iglesias.

“I already got the experience. I got to feel his power. He got to feel my power, and it would be a great fight.”