It’s now official that Canelo Alvarez will defend his three super middleweight belts against his WBA mandatory Edgar Berlanga in the headliner on September 14th in an event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) has chosen to ignore the criticism from fans and go ahead with his plans to defend against the unproven Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) for the Mexican Independence Day weekend on DAZN and PBC Prime Video PPV. The fight will be a classic Mexico vs. Puerto Rico match-up, creating interest from fans of the two fighters.
A Questionable Title Shot?
Berlanga, 27, will be getting his “bag” that he’s been pushing for, but it’s off-putting how he’s getting the title shot without fighting one high-level contender.
His clever promoters maneuvered him into the fight, moving him around risky fights against David Morrell Jr. and Caleb Plant, among others, to get this payday against Canelo. Berlanga is the new breed of fighter that is well-matched to get title shots based on wins over lesser opposition.
Berlanga follows in the footsteps of Canelo’s last opponent, Jaime Munguia, who was matched in the same way to get a title shot last May. Munguia had been groomed for 10+ years to get a big payday against Canelo and looked like a deer in the headlights against the superstar. Berlanga is Munguia 2.0, but his past opposition has been far worse.
Canelo has reportedly been stripped of his IBF title for failing to defend against his mandatory. As such, he’ll have just three of his belts at stake for the Berlanga clash, but the fans won’t care. They want to see an entertaining matchup, and Berlanga should provide that for Canelo. He’s the sacrificial lamb for Alvarez.
The Co-Main Event: Lara vs. Garcia
In the chief support bout, WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara will defend against Danny Garcia in a twelve-round clash. That should be an interesting fight between the 41-year-old Lara (30-3-3, 18 KOs) and the inactive former two-division world champion Garcia (37-3, 21 KOs), who hasn’t fought in two years since July 2022.
Lara-Garcia is a fight that should be buried lower on the undercard, but this might be as good as it gets for this event. This isn’t a Turki Alalshikh card
You can argue that Danny, 36, is getting the title shot against Lara only because of his accomplishments many years ago.
Garcia’s career has slowed to a crawl since his late high-level win against Lucas Matthysse on September 14, 2013. All of Garcia’s victories since then have come against lesser opposition, and he’s repeatedly been beaten when stepping it up against the best.
Superstar Canelo had no choice but to fight Berlanga because he needed someone with enough following to compete for fans with the UFC event taking place on the same night, September 14th, in Las Vegas. Since Alvarez wouldn’t bite the bullet and fight David Benavidez, Berlanga was the next best thing.
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