Energized Canelo To “Destroy” Berlanga, Says Hopkins

Bernard Hopkins says Edgar Berlanga has “energized” Canelo Alvarez to destroy him on September 14th.

Canelo’s Initial Intent: A “Beat Up,” Not a Destruction

Hopkins feels that the superstar Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) originally was just going to “beat him up” and allow him to fight another day to enjoy his career, but with all the mess that the New Yorker Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) has talked, Alvarez is going to leave him in a bad state.

WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez will defend against #1 WBA mandatory Berlanga on September 14th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event will be shown live on DAZN PPV, priced at $89.99.

Berlanga, 27, seems to have taken issue with hearing that Canelo was going to show him mercy initially. He feels that’s a sign of weakness on his part because that’s not how he fights. Berlanga shows no mercy for his opponents, and that’s to be believed. His 16 first-round knockouts are proof that he’s not into showing weakness.

Berlanga’s Trash Talk: Fuel to the Fire

“Canelo gets the knockout within six or seven rounds,” said Bernard Hopkins to the media, predicting a knockout win for Canelo Alvarez over Edgar Berlanga on September 14th. “Sure, and that’s why he will get knocked out,” said Hopkins when told that Berlanga predicts a knockout over Canelo.

If Berlanga hadn’t focused on getting a knockout, Canelo would have stopped him sooner or later anyway. So, he’s better off taking the fight to him and going out on his shield. At least if he fights that way, he has a slight chance of winning if he can catch him early like he did with his last opponent, Padraig McCrory, on February 24th.

“He must come to the fire. I’m going with Canelo. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Anything can happen, right? But if you ask me who I’m going for if I have to put money down, Canelo all day,” said Hopkins.

“You know the worst thing he [Berlanga] did to Canelo? He energized him to destroy him. You know, sometimes you keep your mouth shut, and the guy doesn’t beat you up that bad. He leaves you with a career to fight another fight one day. He blew that. Canelo took that off the table,” said Hopkins.

Berlanga is trying to sell the fight to make the most amount of money possible. With the event priced at $89.99 on PPV, it will scare away a lot of fans, and it likely won’t bring in a lot of buys. That makes it more important for Berlanga to talk trash to drive the buy rate up to make more money on the PPV upside.

“It’s not even personal. He just wants to show him now. ‘I was just going to beat you up and get my $30 million, but now I’m going to [mess you up],” said Hopkins.

Canelo will have to be careful because Berlanga punches hard and is similar in size to David Benavidez, a fighter Alvarez never showed interest in fighting. Berlanga likely hits harder than Benavidez, but he doesn’t possess his combination punching, hand speed, and chin.