Zander Zayas states that Edgar Berlanga must use his power for him to have a shot at upsetting unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 14th in Las Vegas.
The unbeaten 154-lb contender Zayas believes Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) has a chance of winning if he can catch the more experienced Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) “sleeping” and nail him with a big shot. However, that will not be easy for the 27-year-old Berlanga to do because he’s not been competing against this fighter level during his eight-year professional career.
A Fight for Profit
Berlanga’s management has intentionally kept him in the shallow waters, away from the predatory sharks that would have long ago devoured him and exposed him as a fake.
The management for the New Yorker has slowly ramped him up against minor league fighters to create a gleaming 22-0 record but without any substance.
Berlanga is a classic example of a fighter designed for cash-out purposes to take advantage of his fanbase in Brooklyn and other parts of New York City, who are looking for a replacement for Miguel Cotto or Felix Trinidad.
Berlanga obviously is not that guy, but his fans in NYC are naively hoping he is. In a perfect world, Berlanga would have been forced to earn a shot against Canelo by fighting David Morrell or David Benavidez because the rest of the world would have accepted him as being deserving of this opportunity.
That’s not happening here, and this fight, if you want to call it that, is a match exclusively designed to make money but has no real sporting value.
Berlanga Must Start Fast
“Power. He’s going to have to catch Canelo sleeping somehow. Catch him pulling out or dipping in or something,” said Xander Zayas to the Sean Zittel YouTube channel, about what Edgar Berlanga must do to upset unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 14th.
Berlanga has to bum-rush Canelo, throw nonstop power shots in the first two rounds, and pray that he can catch him with a big shot. After two rounds, Berlanga will be tired and chopped apart slowly by Canelo and likely be knocked out by the sixth. Hopefully, Berlanga will not resort to biting Canelo if things look bleak.
“Catch him with a backhand or a hook because it’s hard when you’re facing someone like Canelo Alvarez,” said Xander about what Berlanga should do. “It’s hard to maintain that for 12 rounds. We’ve seen people do it. We saw Caleb Plant outbox Canelo for a couple of rounds.”
“We saw Kovalev do it for a couple of rounds, but once that experience comes in and that dog kicks in, it’s like, Okay, now it’s offer.’ The only guy that has done it in recent years is [WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry] Bivol, and that was a 175-lb bigger guy.”
Berlanga is not the only level of Plant or even the washed-up version of Sergey Kovalev that Canelo fought many years ago. He can’t do what those guys did against Canelo because he’s not as talented as them.
One-Punch Knockout the Only Hope
Really, the only hope Berlanga has is if he can jump on Canelo right away in the first round and land one of his big shots on the top of his head to get a knockout. Sixteen of Berlanga’s knockouts occurred in the first round, but the opposition was cab driver-level, and it was pathetic that his promoter promoters at Top Rank groomed him that way. It wasn’t fair to the public to create that kind of fighter and then put him in main events on their cards on ESPN.
“Canelo feels comfortable at 168, and it’s going to be a hard fight for Berlanga,” sai Zayas. “But then again, a lot of people said the same thing about Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia. Look at what happened. I feel like this is boxing. Anything can happen, and you’re wearing 10-oz gloves. Those are some big guys, and if somebody gets touched, you’re going to sleep.”
Berlanga is not on the level of Ryan Garcia, and Canelo isn’t Devin Haney, a fighter with no power and a fragile chin who was never a super talent. Ryan is a far better fighter than Berlanga and comes from a successful amateur background. Berlanga was never that kind of fighter, so Zayas’s comparison makes no sense.
“I do see a hard fight for Berlanga, and Canelo will get the victory, but all my respect to him and his team for taking the fight and making it happen,” said Zayas.
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