Edgar Berlanga says fans are “tired” of long-time super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and want a newer fighter to be at the top of the sport. Berlanga, 27, feels he’s the person people want to take over.
Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) will get his chance when he challenges Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) for his WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles on September 14th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event will be shown live on DAZN PPV, priced at $89.99.
Fans are tired of Canelo’s failure to take on real challenges in his career, and they view Berlanga as another example of him playing it safe. Except for his one accident against Dmitry Bivol in 2022, Canelo stopped taking risks in 2020 when he fought Callum Smith.
Apart from the mistake against Bivol, it’s been one slow retirement tour for Canelo, and Berlanga, a ham-and-egger is part of it. Fans don’t view Berlanga as any replacement for Canelo. He’s part of the problem.
It would be a shock if Berlanga is the one who unseats Canelo because he’s such an unlikely replacement. He’s never fought any top-level fighters in his career and is just one step removed from fighting the scrubs that his promoter promoters at Top Rank matched him against to allow him to score 16 first-round knockouts.
Berlanga: Canelo’s Time is Up
“I definitely lit a fire in him for sure, but hey, that’s what we all want. I touched a couple of buttons in him,” said Edgar Berlanga to the Tobin YouTube channel, talking about how he annoyed Canelo Alvarez at their two press conferences to discuss their September 14th fight.
It’s difficult to know if Canelo was truly angry during the two press conferences to kick off their September 14th fight or faking it to help sell the fight. He’s well aware that there’s not a lot of interest in this fight outside of his loyal fanbase and Berlanga’s fans in a small section of New York City. Berlanga isn’t popular anywhere else outside of his small area.
“It’s my time now. He’s already at the age where he already made history. He’s held the belts numerous years already, and to be honest, people are just tired of him,” Berlanga said.
If Berlanga does win, he’ll get a nice payday for the rematch with Canelo, and if he wins that, too, he’ll be hugely wealthy. The endorsements will roll in, and he’ll have his pick of the top fighters to defend his three belts against.
“They want a new guy to come in and shake the sport up,” he offered, “and I know I’m the guy for that.”
