Canelo Alvarez vs Edgar Berlanga Undercard, Tale of the Tape & Breakdown

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is one of the biggest names in boxing, and for good reason. Since his junior welterweight debut in 2005, the Pride of Guadalajara, has fought 65 times across 6 weight classes and became world champion in 4 of them. He has also been in the ring with some of the best the sport has had to offer. Mayweather, Mosley, Kovalev, and Golovkin are just a few of the legends he’s been in the ring with. His one year conquest of super middleweight between December 2020 and November of 2021 could be described as incredible. Alvarez followed that with a second attempt at gold in the 175 lb division against Dmitry Bivol, in which he came up short and went back down to reign over 168, where he remains. Though it has drawn criticism, Canelo has been more or less calling his shots for the last couple of years, and though it may not result in the most exciting match-ups on paper, it is hard to argue that he hasn’t earned the right. As is expected, Alvarez is the favorite by a mile against Berlanga, but for some, just seeing Canelo while he is still active is worth the price of admission and/or the PPV. 

Edgar Berlanga was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York but has familial ties to Puerto Rico. It’s this lineage, and the baked-in Mexico vs Puerto Rico rivalry that is likely the main contributing factor in Canelo picking him as an opponent. But Berlanga didn’t come out of nowhere. His professional boxing career began in 2016. From then through 2020 he ran through his opponents, boasting an impressive 16 first round knockout streak which captured the attention of boxing fans around the world. Demond Nicholson was the first fighter to take Berlanga the distance in ‘21, followed by 4 more decisions in a row. “The Chosen One” was able to get back to his old ways in his last bout against undefeated Prodraig McCrory where he earned a knockout victory in the 6th, setting himself up nicely for a bout with the current king of super middleweight, Canelo Alvarez.

Alvarez has always been highly respected and highly skilled. Throughout his career he has evolved with age, size, and in-ring maturity. The current iteration of Canelo, or at least the one we’ve seen as of late, is a relatively low output power puncher with plenty of craft and educated footwork. For a while his head movement was both impressive and flashy, now it is still impressive, though more economical. Since his move to middleweight Canelo is always the shorter fighter in the ring which could be seen as a disadvantage by some, but he knows the game better than most and has no problem landing counterpunches, marching the other fighter down, or working in his preferred distance no matter the size of opposition. As he was ascending weight classes his power always seemed to move up with him. In his last five outings he was taken the distance, but even so, his power garners respect from his foes at the absolute least, and hasn’t seemed to diminish at all. Another thing that must always be brought up when it comes to Saul Alvarez is his chin. We saw that even when facing punchers like Golovkin and Kovalev his ability to take a punch is astounding. The only time we’ve seen him “buzzed” was 14 long years ago against Jose Miguel Cotto. Since then a person would be hard pressed to find an instance where Canelo even took a step back from taking a punch. With all that being said, Canelo is formidable to say the least. While he can be outboxed and outworked, it takes being very skilled as well as very durable to do it. All that and more makes Canelo the heavy favorite going into his fight with Edgar Burlanga.

Berlanga is known for his power, and dealing damage is what he’s best at. When he was finally getting his rounds in, it was obvious that having such brief in-ring competitions came at the cost of the education most would have received at 16-0. That said, in every one of his last 6 outings, he has shown improvement in one department or another. He has learned the importance of the jab, which keeps getting better, as well as the value in body work. His feet are still a work in progress, but in his latest outing with McCrory he used lateral movement and as the fight went on was doing better at cutting off the ring. He separates himself from his fellow pugilists with power punches. Not only does he get an impressive amount of leverage while moving forward, but can also throw a sneaky check-left-hook when his opponent is throwing. Other fighters that were in the amateurs with Edgar attest to his ring IQ though since turning professional, it’s something that most fans are waiting to see for themselves. Overall Berlanga has a lot of potential and a ton of power, the question is does he have enough as is to best the reigning champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

The Owens Opinion: The card in its entirety is promising. Whether it’s worth choosing this one over what the UFC are doing down the road is going to be up to you. As far as the main event is concerned, I don’t think it’s so much if Canelo gets the win, but how. Assuming Berlanga means what he says and goes forward against Alvarez, he’s getting knocked out. I don’t really know how good Berlanga’s chin is, but I’m relatively confident it’s not going to be good enough Saturday to do what he wants to do. I’m a sucker for an underdog story and in boxing there’s always a place for a little hope for any puncher. But when you factor in Alvarez’s chin, that little place shrinks even more. I’m not trying to publicly disparage the young man, but… Look, if Edgar pulls this off I will be the first to publicly apologize, and I’ll be excited for what that means for the belts at 168. As it stands I cannot even imagine a path to victory for the Brooklyn raised Puerto Rican.