Wainwright weighs in on Canelo vs. Berlanga

News filtered through midweek that Canelo Alvarez will put his Ring, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles on the line against Edgar Berlanga on the Mexican Independence Day weekend date of September 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

It was almost universally met with derision. Most perceive The Ring’s No. 9-rated super middleweight (though will move up once David Benavidez and David Morrell exit for the light heavyweight division) to be wholly undeserving and, well, they’re not wrong.

I live in the UK and ask myself would I stay up for this fight? No. Would I set the alarm to get up and watch in the wee hours? No. I’ll watch the next day, and even then, it’s because I can’t swerve it altogether with boxing-writing being my job. Hopefully the undercard has a matchup or two of significance. The co-feature, Erislandy Lara-Danny Garcia, may be a fun fight, but it looks several years too late.

Berlanga (22-0, 17 knockouts) enters with a pristine record and Puerto Rican heritage, which will doubtlessly be played up. Berlanga, who won his first 16 fights all inside the first round, got some real attention before going the distance in four consecutive fights and looking decided less so. However, it should be noted he hasn’t fought in Puerto Rico and isn’t much of a draw.

Awhile back Berlanga created something of a buzz, but since his prospect days he’s looked more like a manufactured product.

He’d been so carefully handled by his management that Top Rank decided to cut him from their roster after he showed reticence to stepping up and was coming off a six-month ban for biting opponent Roamer Alexis Angulo during their June 2022 bout.

It felt like a slam dunk for Eddie Hearn to sweep in and sign the free agent given his close working relationship with Canelo. Sign Berlanga, check, put him in against a handpicked opponent, check, and then enter the Canelo sweepstakes, check.

It is believed to have come down to a fight between Canelo and Berlanga or Chris Eubank Jr., a middleweight contender who has previously dabbled at super middleweight. Truth be told, Eubank Jr. was no more deserving than Berlanga. Ultimately, Berlanga won out.

🇲🇽⚔️🇵🇷 Fin de semana de independencia, fin de semana de pelea 🥊 Regresamos al @TMobileArena de Las Vegas este 14 de septiembre #CaneloBerlanga #MexicovsPuertoRico pic.twitter.com/6os7vM4Gtd

— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) July 25, 2024

Canelo has the deepest resume in boxing but the recently turned 34-year-old is facing some low hanging fruit. This isn’t Gennadiy Golovkin, Billy Joe Saunders, Dmitry Bivol, etc. This is far more Rocky Fielding or Avni Yildirim.

Will Berlanga get blown out as Anvi Yildirim was in 2021? Photo by Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.

David Benavidez has long been the fans choice, but he got fed up waiting for his deserved shot at Canelo and announced last week that he’d be staying permanently at light heavyweight. It’s a similar story for the dangerous but unheralded David Morrell. If Canelo wasn’t facing Benavidez, then to paraphrase Muhammad Ali, “Morrell’s got two chances: Slim, and none, and Slim just left town.”

There are other candidates for Canelo, but unless you get particularly creative looking at 160 or 175 (and after losing to Bivol we know Canelo isn’t going back to light heavyweight in a hurry). Truth be told, the options are thin on the ground. He already holds wins over the respectable Caleb Plant and Jaime Munguia.

With Benavidez and Morrell jumping ship, the most deserving is The Ring’s No. 2-rated super middleweight, Christian Mbilli, who has been making plenty of noise in Canada. He will face Sergey Derevyanchenko in what promises to be a potential fight of the year on August 17.

Meanwhile, Mbilli’s promotional stablemate Osleys Iglesias has caught the eye with two devastating knockouts this year but is currently in the big-risk versus low-reward category. The Cuban will face former Morrell victim Sena Agbeko and is doing all he can to advance his own claims by staying active and catching the eye when he fights.

William Scull is an undeserving IBF mandatory and had hoped to play that card but once it became clear Canelo was facing Berlanga the IBF stripped the Mexican star of their title. Scull will likely face the equally unknown Vladimir Shishkin.

I do think if Terence Crawford is successful against Israil Madrimov at junior middleweight this Saturday that will go a long way to making Canelo-Crawford possible next year.

Terence Crawford vs Canelo Alvarez is the biggest fight in boxing right now. Like it or not it’s just facts.

— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) February 4, 2024

Canelo earned his right to call the shots long ago. He’s very stubborn and likes to remind us of that every now and then and I do think that is part of the reason he hasn’t shown a willingness to face Benavidez. He was slighted by the younger, bigger fighter and doesn’t want to give him the pay day (coupled with the more people ask him about the fight the more he’s unwilling to bow to peer pressure).

His PPV numbers might start to steeply decline if he remains on his current path (which could possibly last just a few more fights before he calls it a career).

Maybe Berlanga will be a little better than I have him tabbed but Canelo will have to have physically fallen off a cliff after 65 fights and countless rounds sparring to be in real danger.

The future hall of famer hasn’t scored a stoppage in five fights going back three years. That has to change, otherwise the jeers will grow louder as will suggestions Canelo has suitably slowed down.

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected] and you can follow him on
Twitter@AnsonWainwright