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Edgar Berlanga has talked about wanting to use his jab to defeat superstar Canelo Alvarez this Saturday night, September 14.
The Jab: Berlanga’s Potential Weapon
Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) and his team have obviously watched Canelo’s fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Erislandy Lara, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Dmitry Bivol and noted that those four gave Alvarez problems with their jabs.
The problem that could prevent Berlanga from following those fighters’ success against Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) is that he’s not known for having a great jab. Berlanga is more of just a puncher who uses his jab briefly while storming forward.
It could be difficult for Berlanga to make the transition from a slugger to a boxer for this fight, especially if his jab isn’t that good. If Berlanga throws a slow jab, Canelo will counter him and possibly knock him out.
Canelo will defend his WBC, WBC, and WBO super middleweight titles against #1 WBA mandatory Berlanga this Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event will be shown live on DAZN PPV starting at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT and costing $89.99.
“Who are the four fighters that gave Canelo problems? Number one is Floyd Mayweather. GGG, fantastic jab. He had a very underrated jab,” said Chris Algeri to the Probox TV YouTube channel about fighters with great jabs that gave Canelo Alvarez problems. “Erislandy Lara. He’s a southpaw and has a good jab.
“Lastly, is Bivol, another guy with a great jab who changes distance. Those are the guys that gave him [Canelo] the most trouble.”
Those fighters were/are on a different level than Berlanga. So, it doesn’t seem realistic that he can achieve the same success that those fighters had against Canelo. If Berlanga hadn’t been in a hurry to fight Canelo and had gotten more experience first, he’d have a better time transitioning to his game.
“I want him [Berlanga] to be the guy he says he is. I hope he doesn’t succumb to social media posts about what people are saying about what is going to happen. I hope he lives up to all this hype that is fun that he’s built this fight up to be,” said Algeri.
Whatever Berlanga says he is, you have to take it with a grain of salt because he’s not proven himself against good opposition. He’s looked marginal in the five fights he’s had against B-level opposition.
“Look, I’m better than him for sure. I’ve always fought everybody, people say. If they really want to see the fight, pay me good,” said Canelo Alvarez to the DAZN Boxing channel about David Benavidez. “Yeah,” said Canelo on whether he thinks he’s the best fighter in boxing.
Canelo didn’t say how much he wants for the fight against David Benavidez. He’d talked about wanting $200 million, but that’s not happening. The longer Canelo waits the less money he’ll get when or if the match does happen. Most would agree that Canelo’s popularity is declining due to him no longer fighting the opposition the fans want to see him fight.
“Since the fight with Bivol, I dropped down [in the pound-for-pound lists]. They don’t notice that I went up in weight to try and be great, but it’s okay. I feel I’m the best. 24,” said Canelo when asked how old does he feel.
Canelo is missing the point. The reason he’s dropped down in the pound-for-pound lists isn’t becauseof his loss to Bivol. He’s dropped down becaue of the quality of opposition he’s chosen to fight since that loss. Canelo stopped taking risky fights, and has been facing exclusively gimmes.
“Obviously, I need to take care of my body because I’ve been in professional boxing for 19 years. But I feel great, strong, and fast. I feel four or five more years,” said Canelo, describing how much longer he plans on fighting.
If Canelo fights the same level of opposition that he’s been fighting lately, he can fight another four to give years, but he’s going to have to avoid the good opposition like Diego Pacheco and Christian Mbilli because those would be very tough fights that they could lose.
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