The big-punching Edgar Berlanga is being guided to a showdown with Mexico’s pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez, according to the Puerto Rican’s promoter Bob Arum.
Berlanga (17-0, 16 KOs) rose to prominence by launching his pro career with 16 straight, first-round knockouts until that improbable streak ended when Demond Nicholson rose from the canvas four times to take the 24-year-old contender the eight-round distance in April.
Arum feels the Brooklyn-based super-middle, currently rated No.6 by the WBO and No.7 by the WBA, will eventually meet unified champion Canelo in a classic Puerto Rico vs Mexico confrontation should he maintain his current trajectory.
“We hope, within the next two years, he progresses enough that we can put him in with Canelo,” Arum told Sky Sports. “A Puerto Rican against a Mexican in the United States is a dynamite fight. It depends on him and how he progresses. I think he has the goods.
“[Berlanga] will appear on October 9 [on the Fury-Wilder III undercard] then he will be in Madison Square Garden on December 11. Then we will take him to Puerto Rico. He is a New Yorker of Puerto Rican origin. He will fight in Puerto Rico where he is enormously popular.
“If all goes well, he will fight in June [2022] at The Garden in conjunction with the Puerto Rican Day parade, an enormous parade down Fifth Avenue in New York. Where it was Miguel Cotto, we always have a boxing event in conjunction with that event at The Garden.”
Main image: Mikey Williams/Top Rank.