Edgar Berlanga can win on Saturday night if he can follow Dmitry Bivol’s blueprint for defeating Canelo Alvarez with high-volume punching. Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) has never been known as a fighter who throws a lot of punches, but his team has studied Canelo’s loss to Bivol, and they’ll follow his approach.
Berlanga raved about Bivol’s jabs in his win over Canelo in 2022, which he’s likely to try to mimic. However, he doesn’t have the gas tank to throw the number of shots that Bivol threw against Canelo.
“It’s dangerous because, in my opinion, you have to be active in the fight because Canelo’s output isn’t that great,” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing, discussing how Edgar Berlanga can potentially defeat Canelo Alvarez on Saturday.
“If you go back to the Bivol performance. What he did so well [against Canelo] was his output was excellent. The punches in bunches, the always willing to throw and to shoeshine with 20 seconds to go to win those rounds.
“You can win rounds with Canelo Alvarez, but at the same time, the more active you are, the more you’re putting yourself under pressure to be counted or stand in range. So, you’ve got to be smart with it as well.
“I keep hearing people say, ‘He’s [Canelo] not been stopped,’ and ‘He’s not been down.’ So what? What are you going to do? ‘Oh well, we’ll forget about that tactic. Edgar is one of the biggest punchers in the world at 168. There’s no doubt about that.
“Can he hurt Canelo? Everybody can be hurt, especially when you get to the back end of your career, but you’ve got to try and put a dent in this man,” said Hearn. “That’s easier said than done. I wouldn’t be surprised if Edgar and the team decided to box a little and try to win some of these early rounds.”
Canelo can be hurt, but you’ve got to hit him hard or throw a flurry of shots like Jose Miguel Cotto did when he had Alvarez hurt.
“What you really want to do is get through that halfway stage in the fight, having banked some rounds because he can switch off a little at times, Canelo, especially down the straight. In the John Ryder fight where he thought he was dominating, and then all of a sudden, he can come back and lose rounds,” said Hearn.
Winning early rounds against Canelo is no guarantee that Berlanga will fight well enough to win the later rounds and get a decision. If anything, Canelo will fight harder if he loses the early rounds, and that would be bad for Berlanga.
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