Trainer Stephen Edwards believes Canelo Alvarez will be intent on inflicting pain on challenger Edgar Berlanga on September 14th for him mouthing off he’s been doing during the build-up for their clash at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Edwards Predicts a Slow and Painful Beating
Edwards feels that unified super middleweight champion Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) will purposefully drag out the beating for ten or eleven rounds to “ruin” Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) as a fighter to teach him a lesson.
Berlanga has been talking crazy lately, saying he will knock out Canelo by the sixth round and become the new king of the 168-lb division. He doesn’t look like he’s kidding around.
The 27-year-old Berlanga wants to use his youth, size, and power advantage to KO Canelo to become the new shot-caller in the super middleweight division.
Berlanga recognizes the kind of money he can make by defeating Canelo because the win would put him in a position to get a rematch and then defend the titles against fighters like David Benavidez, Jaime Munguia, and Caleb Plant.
Berlanga’s History of Dirty Tactics
Edwards also believes that Berlanga will purposely get disqualified to escape the embarrassment when the fight becomes one-sided, with Canelo beating him up.
Stephen says he’s seen Berlanga do dirty moves when fights aren’t going well for him, and he sees him resorting to this when he starts getting whooped by Canelo.
Although he doesn’t give examples of incidents where Berlanga used dirty stuff, he’s likely talking about his fight against Roamer Alexis Angulo in June 2022 at the Hula Theater in New York. When the fight was going badly for him, Berlanga appeared to attempt to bite him on the shoulder. Berlanga was suspended for six months for that incident.
“I think Canelo is going to try to torture him. I think because of his mouth and everything,” said trainer Stephen Edwards to the MillCity Boxing YouTube channel, picking Canelo Alvarez to inflict suffering upon challenger Edgar Berlanga on September 14th due to his trash-talking he’s done.
For Canelo, 34, to slowly torture Berlanga, he will need to be willing to take a lot of the heavy shots that he will be firing back at him, and that’s risky. Berlanga is a bigger puncher than anyone Canelo has faced since his trilogy match against Gennadiy Golovkin in 2022. It’s not a good idea for Canelo to take it easy on a guy that powerful just to ruin him slowly.
“I think he’s going to try and torture him and beat him up to his body, just ruin him and beat the [stuffing] out of him. I think he’s going to try and ruin him. I think he’s going to try and carry him late and try and beat him for 10 or 11 rounds and really hurt the kid.
Edwards Predicts a Disqualification
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Berlanga got disqualified and didn’t want the embarrassment of getting ruined like that in front of his family and friends. I’ve seen him bite people [Alexis Roamer Angulo?] before, and I seen him make certain kind of comments. He’s the kind of guy where I wouldn’t be surprised if he lost his cool and did something dirty,” said Edwards.
Given what’s at stake in this fight, it’s unlikely that Berlanga will attempt to get disqualified against Canelo because there’s too much money to be made if he’s victorious. He’ll want to stay around as long as possible, hoping to score a knockout.
“No disrespect to Berlanga. Munguia is a better fighter. So, I think Canelo was in a real fight that night, and he had to be careful because that dude has really good stamina and was determined. He fought a really good fight, even though Canelo beat him. I think it’s a different fight, and I think Munguia has got to be careful,” said Edwards.
It didn’t look like Canelo was showing compassion against Munguia last May. He couldn’t knock out the guy because he didn’t have the stamina to fight consistently enough to finish him.
When Canelo did drop Munguia in the fourth, he looked tired when he tried to pour it on to finish him. The only reason Munguia couldn’t get in the fight was that he was too limited and looked like a big fighter who was out of his depth.
