Rising super-middleweight star Edgar Berlanga is eager to put on a show when he faces Steve Rolls on Saturday night.
The Top Rank main event at the Madison Square Garden Theatre will be Berlanga’s first fight of 2022. He signed off 2021 with a points win over Marcelo Esteban Coceres. It was his second consecutive decision victory after 16 wins inside the distance. But the New Yorker seems keen to get back to destruction with a statement win against his Canadian opponent.
Speaking at yesterday’s press conference Berlanga said he’s glad he had to overcome adversity against Coceres.
“In my last fight, I tore my biceps in the third round. I broke the guy’s orbital bone in three places. I would have stopped the fight in the 10th, but I got dropped in the ninth. So, for me, I just feel I needed that for my career. I needed that adversity.
“Every fighter goes through that in their career, especially being this young. I know I was going to come out of that adversity because having a torn biceps in the third round and fighting seven rounds like that—a lot of fighters would have quit because the pain is just ridiculous. But I took it as it came. We got the victory. I won the WBO NABO title, and we moved to Las Vegas, and now we’re here ready for Saturday.”
Rolls has only suffered one defeat in his 22-fight career and that came against middleweight superstar Gennadiy Golovkin. Since the fourth-round knockout loss in 2019 Rolls has won two fights out of two. A win against Berlanga would be a huge boost for his career but the home favourite is ready to put on a show for his city.
“I’m ready to blow the roof off this place. I’m just ready to explode. It’ll be fireworks like always.”