Canelo Alvarez explained to the media today at the final press conference why he picked Egar Berlanga as his opponent for September 14th, saying that he wanted him to become of the “Mexico vs. Puerto Rico” rivalry.
Alvarez felt that Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs), an American of Puerto Rican descent, would be the ideal opponent for him to defend his unified super middleweight titles against at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
While Canelo’s rationale may not sit well with hardcore boxing fans, who would have preferred David Benavidez as his opponent, Berlanga is the one he chose for the Mexican Independence Day holiday.
“Mexico vs. Puerto Rico”
“I fought everybody already. I was on vacation, and [trainer] Eddy [Reynoso] called me. He was working on the fight. I told him, ‘I don’t care. I fought everybody,’ and I think it’s a good fight for the people. Mexico vs. Puerto Rico, there’s a lot of history there, and I think it’s a great match,” said Canelo Alvarez at the final press conference today, explaining why he chose Edgar Berlanga as his opponent for September 14th.
Berlanga isn’t from Puerto Rico, but he identifies more with that country than the U.S., where he was born and lived his entire life. So, that makes him Puerto Rican in Canelo’s eyes for this fight, but that doesn’t sit right with Oscar De La Hoya, who feels that Berlanga isn’t an authentic Puerto Rican if he wasn’t born in that country.
“It was a lot of back and forth at the beginning because the numbers got to make sense,” said Berlanga, explaining how long it took for him to decide whether to take the Canelo fight when it was offered to him.
“I came out here in May [in Las Vegas] for when Canelo fought Munguia, and the fans were going crazy. They were saying, ‘We want you for September. We want you.’ The Mexican fans were going crazy,” Berlanga continued.
That was where Berlanga was walking around at ht Canelo-Munguia fight, playing Mexican music and singing in Spanish, openly campaigning for the fight with Canelo.
Some fans saw that as an example of Berlanga debasing himself, kissing up to get the lottery payday without working for it by fighting Benavidez or David Morrell, but it worked in his favor.
Canelo picked him, and now he’s going to make millions. Even if the remainder of Berlanga’s career goes downhill from here, he’ll have the money he made from the Canelo fight to live off.
“Then I got the press conference in New York with Ryder, and Luis [Decubas] was there. I said, ‘Yo, we got to make the fight happen in September. He reached out to Eddie [Hearn], and then we started working from there,” said Berlanga.
“After his [Canelo] victory over Munguia, we started pushing the issue for the fight, and we got it. People are going to say I’m not going to go the full 12 rounds because of my career and who I fought. Seeing my name is a blessing,” said Berlanga.
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