Edgar Berlanga’s former trainer, Andre Rozier, says he “can’t celebrate” his recent loss to Canelo Alvarez. That’s not something that he should be celebrating. Rozier feels that Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) should be telling himself, “I need to do better.”
Fighters like Berlanga make a mockery of the sport by celebrating defeats, and getting title shots that they didn’t earn. It was a joke that Berlanga was given a title shot against Canelo after beating these low level fighters: Padraig McCrory, Jason Quigley, and Macelo Coceres.
Last week, the Brooklyn, New York native Berlanga traveled to his parent’s home country of Puerto Rico and celebrated like a hero, which fans on social media thought was strange. He was celebrating his participation trophy for losing all 12 rounds against Canelo, and that rubbed people the wrong way.
Canelo picked Berlanga as his opponent, but he he’d never fought any of the top super middleweights to deserve a title shot. His management had maneuvered him into the title shot by beating lesser opposition.
If he had to fight someone good, like David Benavidez, David Morrell, or Caleb Plant, he likely would have been weeded out a long time ago. It’s Canelo’s fault for choosing Berlanga because he should have waited until he fought one of those fighters before picking him.
By giving Berlanga a title shot, Canelo sent a message to all the other contenders that they could follow his path to get a crack at his belts by fighting fluff opposition to create a fake record.
Berlanga did not perform well and fought a survival-oriented fight, putting in a similar effort as Jermell Charlo did in his clash against Canelo Alvarez last year. Berlanga fought like a bigger version of Jermell, playing it safe, and not willing to let his hands go despite having a massive size advantage.
“He was using the jab better than he had in the past, which was good. I didn’t like him backing up, retreating. He was the bigger man. He should have emphasized his size difference upon Canelo, and muscled him up and pushed him around,” said Andre Rozier to Fighthype, talking about his former fighter, Edgar Berlanga’s recent performance against Canelo Alvarez on September 14th.
“Sometimes you have to make a fight a dog fight to get it to win it to be on top of it. A lot of people ask me, ‘What do you think of the performance?’ I’m not going to vilify or bring him down on it, but you can’t celebrate coming up short. That’s what you don’t do,” said Rozier.
Berlanga was backing up and covering up against the ropes like a sparring partner against Canelo all night. He had a huge size advantage, but he wouldn’t use it because he wasn’t there to try and win. He was in a survival mode, and just there for the payday in the minds of many fans. The people that paid the high $89.95 price on PPV to order Canelo vs. Berlanga was furious at how disappointing that fight was in addition to the undercard.
“You got to say to yourself, ‘I could have done better, and I need to do better so I can be better.’ That was just talk. Fighters do that, and it was him having some fun with words,” said Rozier when asked about his thoughts on being told that Berlanga said that he wanted to move up to heavyweight and fight Anthony Johsua at 210 lbs.
Berlanga looked as serious as a heart attack when he mentioned in different interviews that he would like a fight against Anthony Joshua. That would be a complete joke, and it would be another example of Berlanga getting a fight that he doesn’t rate. He’s never fought at heavyweight, and shouldn’t be given the chance to fight a popular guy like Joshua without proving himself.
“Anthony Joshua would not be happening. I like Munguia. He will bring the true warrior out of him, and if he doesn’t respond like he should, then it’s going to be a long night for him. But if he lets it go and he steps to him, it could be a very, very exciting fight where he definitely could be the victor,” said Rozier on who he’d like to see Berlanga fight next.
If Berlanga is going to fight Jaime Munguia next, he’ll need to wait until next year because the Mexican slugger is fighting in December against a fringe contender, Ronald Gavril. It would be better for Berlanga to show fans that he’s not a phony and that he’s willing to fight some of the other good contenders to prove himself.
Berlanga should focus on fighting Caleb Plant, Christian Mbilli, Diego Pacheco, or Osleys Iglesias. Some of those guys should be available and would willingly agree to fight him if he were courageous enough to face them.
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