Calent Plant roasted Edgar Berlanga during an interview, lighting into him for fighting to survive in his lopsided 12 round decision loss to Canelo Alvarez on September 14th.
The Breakfast Club asked the former IBF super middleweight champion Plant if he had respect for Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) after watching him go the distance against Canelo, and he trashed the New Yorker, who didn’t even try to win the fight.
“Sweethands’ Plant says Berlanga was afraid to go out on his shield by fighting hard against Canelo, because he wanted to make sure he was still standing at the end of the fight. The only round that Berlanga put in any effort was the 12th, and even then, he played it safe.
Plant (23-2, 14 KOs) stole the show with his come from behind ninth round knockout of Trevor McCumby on the undercard of Canelo-Berlanga. The courage that Plant showed in that fight was far and away more than Berlanga.
“I thought it was a one-sided whooping. He might have won maybe a round,” said Caleb Plant to the Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM, talking about Edgar Berlanga’s lopsided loss to Canelo Alvarez on September 14th.
The judge was kind to Berlanga to give him a couple of rounds because he didn’t come close to winning any of the 12 rounds. Canelo dominated Berlanga, showing that he was a fake. Plant notes that during the lead up to the fight, the 27-year-old Berlanga had bragged about how his power was greater than Gennady Golovkin. During the fight, he didn’t show that. Berlanga’s offense was limited to jabs.
“A lot of people expected Berlanga to get stopped halfway through the fight in rounds six or eight, something like that. He made it through. Is that the level of respect now? It doesn’t matter if he wins a round as long as he survives. Not really,” said Plant when asked if his level of respect has gone up for Berlanga after watching his performance against Canelo.
What’s interesting is how Berlanga talked crazy after the fight, as if he’d done something special, and saying that Canelo had told him that he was going to be a world champion and a “Superstar.” Canelo had to have been snickering inside when he told Berlanga that because he as easily the worst opponent he’s had since Avni Yildrim.
“I’m not here to brag about who lost the best against Canelo because that seems silly, but at the same time, I definitely won more rounds, and I went out on my shield trying to win as opposed to yip-yapping the whole lead-up and then for the most part, keeping my hands in my pocket the whole fight.
“He’s [Berlanga] is the big, bad wolf, who says he punchers harder than GGG, but he’s the one that was getting walked down the whole fight. It’s not like he stuck and moved, boxed and used his skills. Canelo was just walking him down the whole fight.
“When it’s 10-0, and it’s the 11th round, and you haven’t won one round, it’s time to put it all on the line. If you get stopped, it’s part of the game. How many legendary fighters have been stopped? Just go out on your shield; who cares? But his ego wouldn’t allow him to do that. He’d rather stay clean and pretty. No, I don’t repeat that,” said Plant.
“I think the fans would be excited to see it. He’s one of the bigger names in the division,” said Plant on whether he’d like to fight Berlanga. “I’m always willing to get in there with big names and big challenges.”
