By Miguel Maravilla at ringside
Photos: Sumio Yamada
WBC/WBA/WBO super middleweight champion Canelo Álvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) scored a twelve round unanimous decision over previously undefeated contender Edgar Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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Canelo pressed forward from the opening bell and landed the harder shots. Berlanga fought cautiously early on. In round three, Canelo dropped Berlanga with a left hook. Berlanga survived the round. Things heated up in round five when both fighters were warned for low blows. Berlanga had some success with his jab, with Canelo connecting with the harder shots. In round eight, Canelo started punishing Berlanga for the rest of the way.
Scores were 117-110, 118-109, 118-109. Fifth straight decision win for Canelo.
so predictable. not sure how anyone pays for this crap… this should be on free tv
the whiners and haters are bitter. I mean, if you can’t stand Canelo being the best, DON’T WATCH. DON’T COMMENT.
He’s not the best. He’s good, but not the best. The best fights the best at their weight class, he chose not to. He didn’t even fight the second best and hasn’t since he fought plant a couple years ago. Don’t watch don’t comment? No I want to watch and will comment every single time until canelo faces either benavidez or even morrell. Unless, he actually gets the winner of bivol/beterbiev too. Where I will be rooting for him to lose. Shrimp!
He is fighting his mandatory’s.. isn’t he? Yes he didn’t fight Benavidez but he has fought the best of the best throughout his great boxing career.. remember, Canelo started his boxing career at 140lb and has moved up all the way to 175lbs.. not many do that. Benavidez barely moved up in weight not so long ago. Beterbiev and Bivol haven’t moved up in weight, Golovkin fought his whole career at 160lbs with the exception of that fight at 168lbs with Canelo… Dare to be great is what Canelo has been doing…. RESPECT !!
Agree 100% Big Chango
Yes, moving up in weight is definitely something to be proud of, but for some fighters it’s just a matter of genetics. You could argue that benavidez used to fight in the amateurs as a heavyweight. To me going down in weight is a whole lot harder than coming up. Especially when most fighters do not fight at their natural weight class. Yeah, he fought his mandatory that was miraculously vacated by morrell for berlanga to move into. Don’t get me started about the alphabet clowns because if enough money is thrown their way, I could be canelos next mandatory.
Not whining but when we all know Benevidez is great and canelo could prove a lot by beating him but he’s not says to me he’s not the greatest, and it’s fixed anyway, either way Canelo is not the greatest let’s be real
Ceviche
I like canelo. I just expect and want more from the face of boxing
Rwb, this was the type of PPV that really needed a stellar undercard. While, it wasn’t a bad undercard, it certainly wasn’t worth $89.99.
As for the main event: Berlanga just isn’t that good, but I’m not sure there is a really good fight at 168 for Canelo anymore with Benevidez up at Light Heavyweight. I truly believe 175 is a bridge too far for Canelo. Bivol was too big, but I commend the attempt. Maybe Morrel can build a following in the next year, but for now there just aren’t any marketable fights at 168.
Canelo did a good fight for to be in decline in his career
Berlanga did a great job for to be young and lack of experience …very strong fighter
Same script as always, one knock down, opponents just dont throw enough punches like they usually do and Canelo gassed at the end and cant KO opponents. years ago I stopped paying for Canelo fights.
I am deeply curious about Berlanga’s fight night weight because it looked like fighters from different weight classes (Canelo/168 and Berlanga/200).
Berlanga better thank his lucky stars for packing extra weight on fight night or else Canelo would have knocked Berlanga to Brooklyn.
I am glad Canelo shipped Berlanga back to NYC with an “L” on his forehead, although I preferred to see a “KO” on Berlanga’s forehead.
I too though Canelo was going to knock him out and he really dominated Berlanga so bad that one of the announcers was concerned for Berlanga’s health and though they should consider stopping the fight. Canelo was hitting him with everything. Berlanga’s trainer even asked him if he was okay are you awake heading into the later rounds. Even he was thinking about it. Canelo didn’t get the KO but that’s okay. You aren’t going to knock everyone out. It’s boxing you have 12 rounds to win the fight. Canelo showed up went to work and did what he’s suppose to do. But the interesting thing was how much weight Berlanga re-hydrated to on fight night “200lbs? the man showed up as a Heavyweight and still got his ass dominated. This is why Canelo is the best.
Canelo is the best at running from Benevidez, keep it real
Yea canelo had to ko
But I hope canelo retires like finito López …..on time (now )
Im gona check the numbers bit if im not mistaken with this fight canelo reached Ricardo finito” lopez with 26 title fights and is 5 title fights away from Julio Cesar Chavez with 31
And I think Julio Cesar chavez and Muhammad Ali are the 2 fighters with most title fights disputed with 37 each
Again….i gotta check it out because my memory is not good anymore after covid
Ali didn’t have 37…. He didn’t even reach 30.
I don’t know why I had in my mind that Ali had fought 37 title fights
And today canelo also reached Floyd Mayweather with 26 title fights won
What matters more is what happened when Canelo an Mayweather fought and what happened when Canelo and Bivol fought, and why canelo is ducking Benevidez, and he claims to be the greatest? Rubbish
Well one thing is personal and general numbers and another thing is one vs one
The victories of canelo were better then the victories of Floyd
And for me canelo was robbed against Floyd
This should have been an easy ko..Berlanga has zero boxing iq…the odds went from canelo -300 to -250 in one day for stoppage win…big money hit decision day of fight.
Berlanga has no IQ but he is strong
So IQ does not help you much to avoid a ko
Needs to fight Benavidez. What is he waiting for?
He will never fight Benavidez.
He has to wait for the proper time when he can get the right judges for that one cause he can’t beat beat Benevidez, he’ll knock you to tomorrow Rock
I’d like to see Berlanga fight Benevidez
If I’m a super middleweight I don’t want to fight somebody that weighs 200 lbs on fight night. Simple as that.
I agree, but that’s the way it is Plus. My last fight was at 175, knowing that I have never fought that high, I weighed in at 164. He weighed in at 169 or so. Fight night I probably got to 165 maybe 166. He soared in weight, but I didn’t care because I wanted to fight. I never wanted to fight that high, but in order to fight the guy I wanted, I had to go to his weight class. I will give canelo credit for fighting guys that rehydrate. Sometimes you gotta take that chance.
Canelo seem to slow down a bit, but still dangerous. He looks frustrated towards the later rounds. Berlanga did good but didn’t engage much.
So glad this fight was free online. Another boring distance fight for Canelo, 5 yhears without a stoppage and still terrified of David Benavidez…
This is why Canelo avoids Benavidez, Berlanga is very amateur and lasted 12 props to him, if Canelo fights Bivol again or Beterbiev it’s over
Well pushing canelo to 175 lbs is asking too much
Canelo will DESTROY Crawford if that fight ever happens. Please, brothers and sisters, DON’T BUY THE FIGHT~
zzzzzz – is the ” fight ” over ? the usual ” $cript ” ? of course .
its getting old .
All opponents at this level are dangerous.
Canelo is still doing his bit, he keeps delivering and he still did it convincingly against Berlanga.
Unexpected? No! Not at all.
Canelo has beaten Munguia, Plant and Berlanga who are all ranked top 10 by Boxrec at Super Middleweight. Andrade is left to face but apart from a few interesting rounds at the start of the fight I don’t think he would survive many rounds against Canelo.
Then there are some interesting names left that need more fights before they can be talked about, names such as Iglesias and Pacheco. I don’t even know if Mbilli is really ready for Canelo. Maybe it’s a likely future fight anyway?
It’s easy to look for difficult opponents at Light Heavyweight. On the other hand, I think Canelo got a real wake-up call against Bivol.
Maybe it sunk in that the Light Heavyweight division is a step too far even for a fighter like Canelo? The Light Heavyweight division has many interesting fights ahead of it, not least the biggest one Bivol vs Beterbiev. How will Benavidez manage against the absolute top? Morell has looked good. I also follow Buatsi with interest.
But all that is a different weight class.
I think Canelo would accept fights if they came down to Super Middleweight. Not likely though it will happen, I believe.
Are there lighter contenders for Canelo? Crawford and Fundora? I would love to see them against each other first and then we have Ennis too. They are two or three weight classes below Canelo.
The risk is that it will be difficult to get super fights for Canelo in the future and that there will be complaints about him because of that.
It’s somewhere unfair I think and I say that as someone who is not a fan of Canelo.
Canelo failed to knock out Berlanga. That’s pretty pathetic. Not man enough to fight a real contender. That is not what REAL champions do.
Then again, it could have been worse. Canelo could have lost a debate despite having in her favor, a rigged moderators, wearing an air piece, and getting the questions in advance, like some crooked woman I know. And still, she got her ass beat in a major way. I have to be honest. I have a trillion percent more respect Berlanga, than the woman I am drawing comparisons to.
Back to Canelo. Fight a real fighter. Berlanga needs to go home and get his shine box. He does not have the makings of a varsity athlete.
That was ear piece. Not air piece. But this woman is an airhead. In any event, Berlanga is a pathetic joke, and Canelo should have knocked him out.
Red & Orange are in. Berlanga & that woman who likes to laugh at & steal are not.
Ray Leonard never fought Aaron Pryor.
They were separated by only 7 pounds.
Could have, would have, should have.
See where I’m going with this?
Benavidez outgrew 168 a long time ago.
Like him or not, Canelo is the best at 168, and one of the best P4P currently.
This was a much better fight than I had expected.
maybe we are lucky, and this fight was Canelos self testing how he does against a taller hard puncher, and now he feels ready for Benavidez. i hope so.
Berlanga need change corner if canelo protect his face Berlanga supposedly hit canelo in the body,
canelo must fight crawford next if that happens put your entire mortgage money on crawford
Canelo was Canelo against a limited but brave Berlanga. Rhe boxing community wants Benavidez stop feeding us fish heads
Canelo is a very good fighter but not great. To his shame he ducked Golovkin for 4 years and then lost twice(the “draw” in fight 1and single point loss in fight 2 were among the worst ever decisions by judges) before moving up to a make-believe weight class.He will not again fight the true light heavyweights like Bivol and Beterbiev because Bivol has already humiliated him and Beterbiev would drop him. I think comparing him to a true warrior like Chavez is way out of line .
I paid for it, why? because I watched with my son and took him to see fights as a kid live. $89 or whatever is a priceless moment. I wanted Berlanga to win and thought he at least blew up a bit for the future. A loss to Canelo is nothing to be ashamed of. We are witnessing boxing history and Canelo will not be around much longer. Berlanga did way better than Munguia. This loss will not hurt Berlanga, he will be a bigger monster after this loss. We will see how Munguia does next week.
Berlanga said Canelo absorbs too many jabs, and he was going to exploit that. But it was Berlanga eating all the jabs. Oh well. Canelo’s guard is very strong. Canelo throws hard shots almost every shot.
chosen ? yep chose to lose
lara beat canelo, mayweather beat canelo, GGG beat canelo, bivol beat canelo. He’s not the best.
Canelo is the best Boxer today-when you look at his record and the way he performs pure Boxing skills and combinations with great timing and power