Edgar Berlanga Promises Fireworks in Upcoming Canelo Fight
On September 14, in Las Vegas, undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KO’s) will take on the brash and flashy Edgar “The Chosen One” Berlanga (22-0, 17 KO’s). At least, those are the particulars according to Berlanga, ranked #1 (WBA), #4 (WBO) and #4 (IBF). Unsurprisingly, the Brooklyn born bruiser was quick to take to his social media to talk about the match.
“What’s up y’all, it’s Edgar Berlanga, and I want to tell my fight fans that we got the fight! Berlanga versus Canelo – live September 14 in Las Vegas on pay-per-view! And for all you fucking haters, y’all are going to eat your words. Don’t sleep on me because y’all are going to be sleeping for a very long time; knockout season, fireworks, you know how we coming!”
HEAVY IS THE HEAD
There are currently a legion of fans up in arms about this opponent selection. This is due to Canelo’s seemingly frantic desire to avoid facing the current interim WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez. This legion will rage about how Berlanga has done nothing of real substance to warrant this fight and they’d be right. This legion will also say Canelo will provide The Chosen One with a stern boxing lesson. And they’d probably be right again.
In many respects though, this bout should serve as a great gauge to determine if Canelo really still is the face of boxing. Similar to Ryan Garcia, Berlanga’s immense following and attention captured outside the ring is being used as the rationale for him being a big box office draw. Yet, both Garcia and Berlanga will have had zero evidence of being an actual pay-per-view draw before fighting a well-established pay-per-view star. With Garcia’s first fighting Gervonta “Tank” Davis and now, Berlanga with Alvarez.
Said to say, the greater expectation of ticket sales will naturally fall on Canelo’s shoulders. The question therefore remains: are the fans en masse going to flock to what is being viewed very broadly as a duck? Will they pack the house and drive up pay-per-view numbers? Can the Mexico versus Puerto Rico rivalry save the day, financially? Or, will Alvarez’s claim as the face of the sport take a major hit? Well, on the bright side, if the fight date Berlanga provided holds true, those answers are not very far away!
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