Edgar Berlanga isn’t worried about the punching power of Canelo Alvarez for the main event showdown this Saturday. Berlanga says he’s been hit before by big punchers, having sparred with heavyweights, so he knows he can take Canelo’s power.
(Credit: Rey Del Rio/Premier Boxing Champions)
Unified super middleweight champion Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) predicts a knockout by the eighth round of his title defense against Berlanga this Saturday, September 14th, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
It will be a long night for Canelo if he can’t get the KO because Berlanga is a dangerous puncher, and he will be pure trouble if he’s still hanging around in the later rounds.
Canelo’s Poor Gas Tank
Canelo typically fades in the second half of his fights, and we saw that on display in his last five contests against Jaime Munguia, Jermell Charlo, John Ryder, Gennady Golovkin, and Dmitry Bivol. Alvarez had nothing left in the last four to six rounds of those fights and was lucky that he wasn’t met with a puncher.
Golovkin had the power to hurt Canelo but surprisingly boxed him instead of going for the knockout, which he should have done in their third fight in September 2022.
Berlanga is not going to try to box Canelo. He will be shooting for the knockout because this is his Super Bowl, and he knows that if it goes to the scorecards, he’s not likely to be given a decision against the Mexican star.
What Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) feels is important is to stay “alert” to ensure that he sees the punches coming because, as he points out, it’s the shots that you don’t see that hurt you. That goes for every fighter.
It’s often the punches that fighters don’t see that hurt them, and that’s why counterpunchers or fast-hand speed score a lot of knockouts.
“Do you think someone like him has hit you?” said DAZN commentator Chris Mannix to Edgar Berlanga about his fight against Canelo Alvarez.
Berlanga Will be Hyper-alert
“You know the punch that hurts you is the punch you don’t see. So, I got to be alert. At that weight, everybody can hit hard. Anybody can punch at 168, 175. If you’re not seeing the shot coming, and you’re not alert, and you get hit, you’re going down. I don’t care who you are. So, it’s about this [mind] and about being alert,” said Berlanga.
In Berlanga’s fights against Roamer Alexis Angulo and Steve Rolls, he was hit with big shots that would have knocked out anybody in the super middleweight division. He took the punches well because he saw them coming, and he could brace for them. Rolls and Angulo hit just as hard as Canelo, bigger than him.
Ready to silence the doubters 🤫 @EdgarBerlangaJr #CaneloBerlanga | Sep 14 | Live on DAZN: Click link in bio to buy 🥊 pic.twitter.com/ee8OSod30p
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) September 11, 2024
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