Edgar Berlanga’s prediction for his and Canelo Alvarez’s fight might interest you if you’re a betting person who likes long shots.
The brash Puerto Rican fighter who will challenge Alvarez for his WBC and WBO super middleweight championships on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena has predicted he will not only upset the Mexican superstar but also knock him out.
Berlanga went as far as to predict the round, saying he would get Canelo out of there in the sixth frame.
“You know as boxers, right,” Berlanga said in response to a question about his prediction during the final press conference on Wednesday in Las Vegas. “I’m a knockout artist, right? So, every fighter wants a knockout. Who doesn’t want a knockout? Everybody wants to knock somebody out, right? We know that he’s a legend. We know that we can’t just go in there and swing for the fences. He got great IQ. He’s intelligent. We have to do it the right way. Sixth round knockout, yeah that’s we going for. If it comes, it comes. But if we gotta go the whole 12, then we doing that as well. So we’re ready for everything that’s on the board for this fight.”
To put Berlanga’s prediction into perspective, Canelo has proven to be not only tough to defeat (he’s lost just two fights in his 65-fight career) but also even tougher to hurt and impossible to knock out. I’ve seen every fight of Alvarez’s career since 2009, and I can only remember seeing him hurt once.
That was in 2010, when Alvarez was just 19 years old, in a fight with Miguel Cotto’s older brother, Jose Miguel Cotto. It happened with about 1:20 left in the first round. It was Alvarez’s first fight in the United States on HBO PPV.
Here is a look at the round. By the way, Alvarez won this fight by TKO in the ninth round.
Berlanga is a big puncher. Many think a KO is his only chance to defeat Canelo on Saturday night. In Berlanga’s career, he is 22-0 with 17 KOs. Every one of those KO wins has happened within six rounds.
However, Berlanga has never fought anyone like Canelo. That explains why Canelo is currently a massive favorite with the following odds:
- Canelo Alvarez: -1800 favorite
- Edgar Berlanga: +1000 underdog
- Draw: +2500
We’ll see if Berlanga can be competitive, let alone in a position to win or stop Canelo.
The Undercard
Canelo and Berlanga are the featured attractions on the evening, but here is a look at the undercard, which is devoid of a major title fight but still has several recognizable names.
Erislandy Lara vs. Danny Garcia
- Weight Class: Middleweight (160 lbs)
- Championship: WBA Middleweight Title
Caleb Plant vs. Trevor McCumby
- Weight Class: Super Middleweight (168 lbs)
- Championship: Interim WBA Super Middleweight Title
Rolly Romero vs. Manuel Jaimes
- Weight Class: Lightweight (135 lbs)
Stephen Fulton vs. Carlos Castro
- Weight Class: Featherweight (126 lbs)
Roiman Villa vs. Ricardo Salas
- Weight Class: Welterweight (147 lbs)
Be on the lookout for more fight week coverage, results, and reactions following the event.
