Today, Edgar Berlanga took to social media to express interest in moving up to heavyweight to face Anthony Joshua or IBF champ Daniel Dubois. Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) said he would enter the ring at 210 lbs.
Berlanga has one fight left on his Matchroom contract with Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua. If Hearn wants to do Berlanga a solid, he’ll grant him his wish to fight against Joshua. It would be a good tune-up fight for AJ to knock Berlanga around the ring in one of the smaller venues.
The 6’1″ Berlanga reportedly rehydrated to 193 lbs for his recent one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss to WBA, WBC, and WBO super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 14th.
If Brooklyn, New York native Berlanga is serious about wanting to fight Dubois or Joshua, he should move up to heavyweight and prove that he’s for real by fighting one or two of these fighters:
– Martin Bakole
– Zhilei Zhang
– Joseph Parker
– Filip Hrgovic
One or two of them might be willing to accommodate Berlanga if His Excellency Turki Alalshikh becomes interested in financing this type of fight. It would be circus-level, similar to when Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua fought former UFC champion Francis Ngannou, who had no rightful business fighting either of them with his lack of experience in boxing.
It’s unknown if that was Berlanga’s rehydrated weight, but if so, it wouldn’t be a problem for him to move up to heavyweight to take on British fighters Joshua or Dubois.
Neither of those heavyweights would be interested in a circus fight against the soundly beaten Berlanga, who looked oovermatched against Canelo despite his size advantage against the 5’8″ fighter.
Berlanga must show that he can beat the top fighters from his weight class at 168 because he’s 0-1 against the only quality guy he’s faced during his career. The 27-year-old Berlanga’s resume is weak, filled with lesser guys, none of which are anywhere near top-level.
Ideally, Berlanga should take on the likes of Caleb Plant, Jaime Munguia, or Christian Mbilli to show that he can beat highly ranked super middleweight contenders. It seems obvious that Berlanga isn’t serious about his professional career and is just looking to make money in fights, where he lacks the talent or experience.
Berlanga should never have been given a chance to fight Canelo for his three titles because he had never beaten anyone with a name to earn the fight. His best wins were against the Britisah fighters Padraig McCrory and Jason Quigley.
I would love to go up to heavyweight and fight Anthony Joshua just to test greatness. Nothing bad towards this. I’ll walk in the ring 210lbs
— Edgar Berlanga Jr (@EdgarBerlangaJr) September 25, 2024
“Matter of fact, I want to fight Daniel Dubois…Puerto Rico vs the UK,” added Berlanga.
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