Canelo (R) Mauls Berlanga
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Joshua Garcia
Mexico and Puerto Rico are two countries that breathe boxing. In the USA football, baseball or basketball are more important. In Mexico and Puerto Rico there is no debate about what is the fans favorite sport. Men and Women who wrap themselves in the nation’s flags and colors are expected to exude top quality greatness and Saturday at T mobile arena, Mexico called on Saul Canelo Alvarez and the Island of enchantment called on Edgar Berlanga.
Saul Alvarez and Edgar Berlanga set out to entertain their people on Mexican Independence Day in Las Vegas. During the 3rd round Canelo, almost as if that’s what the game plan called for during camp for round 3, snuck a strike of a snake like hook behind the right glove of Edgar Berlanga, instantly dropping him to the canvas. Berlanga smiled as he sat in the center of the ring, not from pride, but he truly never even saw the shot coming, it was just too fast.
Saul Alvarez has famously been working on his English skills over the last few years and Berlanga must have missed that fun fact, because he continually tossed curse words in Spanish at Canelo alongside his fists. For Berlanga, what he gave up in the loss column, he gained in the experience category tenfold.
Berlanga was never going to be able to match the level of one of the greatest fighters in the sport’s famed history, but anyone who watched Saturday would love to see the pride of Brookyln and Puerto Rico against a familiar foe in his next bout, after that incredible learning experience. On the promotional tour both Berlanga and Caleb Plant, who fought and won on Saturday night’s fight card, could not keep from verbally sparring, the two young stars seem destined for a main or co main event since, and Edgar’s showing against Canelo cemented that.
As for the world’s greatest fighter, as Canelo Alvarez coined himself and boasted post fight, if only one thing is unpredictable about the Champion from Jalisco, Mexico, it’s his future opponents. If given a choice the boxing public would unanimously pick David Benavidez. Canelo demanded respect for beating a younger fighter in Edgar Berlanga on Mexico’s Independence Day Saturday night, but the younger bigger fighter the world wants to see him step into the ring with is the more than anxious for the opportunity, 29-0, two-belt champion, David Benavidez.
Canelo Alvarez’s legacy will forever be in question until he faces David Benavidez, and without it will be undoubtedly stained, no matter how the rest of his career unfolds. Canelo will never miss a dollar no matter who he fights, so if it’s it’s not about money and if it is about the chance to become sport’s all-time great, or the best in his Boxing-hungry country, he needs to fight and beat David Benavidez, sooner than later. Until then, the public will always watch Canelo no matter what he does, or who he fights, but partly to argue against his greatness, and not to solidify it.
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