Who is Edgar Berlanga, and how did he arrive here?

Edgar Berlanga will challenge Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for the world super middleweight championship inside Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena in one of the biggest events on the boxing calendar. Few are expecting him to win, and even his closest allies surely have doubts about his chances of upsetting the most influential, marketable and well-known fighter in the sport.

That the 27-year-old has gotten this far – snaring a life-changing payday on a global platform – is surely a victory of sorts for a boxer who, less than a decade ago, was rejected by U.S. promoters as he turned professional following a reported 162-17 amateur career decorated with sound if unspectacular form in junior national championships.

Trainer Marc Farrait recognized Berlanga’s potential, however, and was keen to progress his charge. Help arrived in the shape of Garry Jonas, who would become his manager.

“We signed him as an 18-year-old,” Jonas reflected. “He was a top amateur and a big Puerto Rican who was more of a boxer – very skilled – but he always had the potential to be a big puncher.”

Jonas’ attempts to get Berlanga a deal with leading promoters initially came to nothing. Aware they were making a mistake, Jonas – now the head of ProBox TV, a burgeoning platform that regularly builds and rebuilds careers using the simple premise of 50/50 fights – refused to be deterred. [Editor’s note: BoxingScene is owned by ProBox TV.]

In 2016, Jonas took the Brooklyn, New York-born Berlanga to Mexico, where he would have his first three professional bouts. It took Berlanga less than five minutes to streak to 3-0 as he won each of those fights by first-round knockout. A fourth early finish followed in Orlando, Florida, before Evander Holyfield’s Real Deal Promotions signed the youngster.

Six more fights followed, all of them over in a flash.

Berlanga’s demolition habit was attracting attention, his 11 wins all coming via knockout in the first round. This was not by design, however. Though the opponents weren’t particularly threatening, plenty of them were known for being durable. Jamie Barboza, for example, went 10 rounds with J’Leon Love four months after being squished by Berlanga in 162 seconds.

“Everything was first-round KOs, and he wasn’t being fed bums – they were relatively decent opponents,” Jonas recalled. “We did feel, at 18, he had the skills, but as is always the case, it was how much room he had to improve in his first three years. Credit to Marc Farrait; he converted Edgar to an aggressive puncher, and the more offensive he got, the more confident he got. At this point, we knew he had a very real chance to be a serious contender and champion.”

Top Rank felt the same when it signed the then-21-year-old Berlanga. What followed remains the most impressive spell of his career, as he continued to score first-round knockouts – even as the opposition steadily improved. In 2020, with the sport clawing itself out of the pandemic-induced lockdown, Berlanga brought cheer to ESPN audiences with three rapid-fire thrashings in Las Vegas. At the end of the year, he could boast the remarkable record of 16-0 with 16 first-round KOs.

Berlanga then heard a peculiar sound in April 2021: The bell to end a round. It was heard a further seven times as Berlanga was forced the full eight-round distance by Demond Nicholson, and again – and again and again and again – in subsequent bouts as he was taken the scheduled 10 rounds in three consecutive bouts.

Although he was learning lessons and proving his stamina, it appeared to some that Berlanga – who started boxing at the age of 7 – had lost his mojo. And though his opponents – Marcelo Coceres, Steve Rolls and Roamer Alexis Angulo – were seasoned at a decent level, they weren’t exactly a bunch of world-beaters. Worse, the only knockdown that occurred during that period was when Coceres decked Berlanga before being outpointed.

The inevitability of the criticism that followed is an age-old story; we build people up, we make them feel special, and then, at the first opportunity, we bring them down. Unsurprisingly, Berlanga did not take kindly to the change in perception.

“He’s a good young man with a big heart,” Jonas reasoned. “He’s unfairly received a fair amount of hate, which probably stems from him losing his cool. I don’t think people realize the pressure on the shoulders of a young Puerto Rican hopeful and, OK, maybe he could have handled that pressure better – but that’s part of becoming a man.”

A move to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing followed – and so, too, did a reminder of the potency he packs into his mitts. Jason Quigley survived 12 rounds but was floored four times and then, most recently, Padraig McCrory was knocked out in six rounds – Berlanga’s first KO in more than three years.

Even so, the leap from Quigley and McCrory to Alvarez can rightly be described as mountainous, and Berlanga’s chances of successfully scaling Mount Canelo appear fanciful at best. Jonas, who remains close friends with Berlanga, believes that better recent opposition may have quietened those who now classify his shot at Canelo as a mismatch.

“For those who think he doesn’t deserve the fight, well, I think that’s more his handlers’ fault than his,” Jonas said of Berlanga. “He can only fight who they put in front of him. I do believe he would beat Sergiy Derevyanchenko and John Ryder, as did [Canelo’s previous opponent] Jaime Munguia. But instead he was matched with Quigley and McCrory, and he beat them easily.

“What I don’t think fans understand about this fight is, out of the super middleweights, Canelo has been running the table. OK, so there’s [David] Benavidez and [David] Morrell. Moving up to 175, with the height and reach disadvantages, proved to be too much for Canelo,” Jonas continued, “and Benavidez is a massive super middle or a real light heavy. So why not Morrell instead of Berlanga? The Puerto Rico-Mexico rivalry is the real reason. Berlanga isn’t getting the fight – Puerto Rican and Mexican fans are getting the fight.”

Jonas is a realist; he’s not downing the hyperbole juice and picking his buddy to shock the world. But he would be among a small minority who wouldn’t be surprised if the youthful and ambitious Berlanga emerged victorious.

“He’d have to fight the perfect fight,” Jonas observed. “He has the size and length, and Edgar can box more than people realize because he’s been playing bully all these years.

“Can he beat Canelo? Let’s be honest – it would be a huge upset. He would have to execute the perfect plan and I’m not sure he has the experience against top-level opposition to pull off something like [Dmitry] Bivol did. But that’s why we play the games and have the fights.”