Canelo Alvarez is one of few active fighters to have remained amongst the contenders for the pound-for-pound throne for near a decade now, cementing his position as a modern-day legend of the sport. However, as father time creeps up on the Mexican superstar, there is a sense of inevitability that his reign will come to an end at some point and his upcoming opponent, Edgar Berlanga, has now declared that he plans to retire the super-middleweight conqueror this month.
Berlanga burst onto the scene with a phenomenal 16 consecutive first-round knockout wins in a run that ran from his debut in April 2016 up until April 2021. However, as the quality of opposition was increased, the stoppages dried up for the New Yorker of Puerto Rican heritage, as ‘The Chosen One’ went the distance in five straight contests – two of which were deemed as controversial decision victories.
Yet, Berlanga appeared to be back to his best in his lone appearance of the year thus far, knocking out Ireland’s Padraig McCrory in the sixth-round of an eye-catching performance in February. Now, the 27-year-old is preparing to jump up in competition once again, as he challenges Alvarez for the unified WBA, WBC and WBO belts, hoping to become the first man to defeat Canelo in the 168lb division.
Speaking with TMZ Sports, Berlanga revealed his plans to not only end the reign of Canelo Alvarez but also his career.
“I definitely want to retire him, for sure. That is my goal. I am not trying to disrespecting him or nothing, he is a legend, but at the end of the day we have got to go in there and fight, have a tussle and we have got to do what we have got to do. He says how everybody wants the knockout, but are you going to deliver it or not? He has been saying in the last three/four fights that he is going to knock somebody out in the seventh or eighth round and he never did that.
“I feel like right now the sport of boxing needs a new face, it needs excitement. They need knockouts, they need somebody that is going to bring that energy into the sport of boxing, the same way that Floyd [Mayweather] did and Mike Tyson. The list goes on with legends that had the sport going crazy, but like I said before, I don’t take nothing away from him. He is a legend and he has given me the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Whilst Berlanga will likely find himself chasing a stoppage, Canelo will also hope that he can put an end to the joint-longest run of bouts to have gone the distance – having not registered a victory without the aid of the judges since he halted Caleb Plant in 2021.
Canelo-Berlanga takes place on September 14th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, as the super-middleweight duo sit atop a card that features two former opponents of Canelo’s, as well as the return of former world champions Stephen Fulton and Rolando Romero, who each lost their respective belts on their last outings.
Boxing Social is now on WhatsApp! Join our channel by clicking here and getting all the latest boxing news direct to your phone.