It’s now official that Canelo Alvarez will defend his three tremendous middleweight belts towards his WBA necessary Edgar Berlanga within the headliner on September 14th in an occasion on the T-Cell Area in Las Vegas.
Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) has chosen to disregard the criticism from followers and go forward along with his plans to defend towards the unproven Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) for the Mexican Independence Day weekend on DAZN and PBC Prime Video PPV. The combat might be a basic Mexico vs. Puerto Rico match-up, creating curiosity from followers of the 2 fighters.
A Questionable Title Shot?
Berlanga, 27, might be getting his “bag” that he’s been pushing for, nevertheless it’s off-putting how he’s getting the title shot with out combating one high-level contender.
His intelligent promoters maneuvered him into the combat, transferring him round dangerous fights towards David Morrell Jr. and Caleb Plant, amongst others, to get this payday towards Canelo. Berlanga is the brand new breed of fighter that’s well-matched to get title photographs primarily based on wins over lesser opposition.
Berlanga follows within the footsteps of Canelo’s final opponent, Jaime Munguia, who was matched in the identical option to get a title shot final Could. Munguia had been groomed for 10+ years to get a giant payday towards Canelo and seemed like a deer within the headlights towards the famous person. Berlanga is Munguia 2.0, however his previous opposition has been far worse.
Canelo has reportedly been stripped of his IBF title for failing to defend towards his necessary. As such, he’ll have simply three of his belts at stake for the Berlanga conflict, however the followers gained’t care. They wish to see an entertaining matchup, and Berlanga ought to present that for Canelo. He’s the sacrificial lamb for Alvarez.
The Co-Important Occasion: Lara vs. Garcia
Within the chief help bout, WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara will defend towards Danny Garcia in a twelve-round conflict. That ought to be an attention-grabbing combat between the 41-year-old Lara (30-3-3, 18 KOs) and the inactive former two-division world champion Garcia (37-3, 21 KOs), who hasn’t fought in two years since July 2022.
Lara-Garcia is a combat that ought to be buried decrease on the undercard, however this is likely to be nearly as good because it will get for this occasion. This isn’t a Turki Alalshikh card
You’ll be able to argue that Danny, 36, is getting the title shot towards Lara solely due to his accomplishments a few years in the past.
Garcia’s profession has slowed to a crawl since his late high-level win towards Lucas Matthysse on September 14, 2013. All of Garcia’s victories since then have come towards lesser opposition, and he’s repeatedly been crushed when stepping it up towards the very best.
Famous person Canelo had no selection however to combat Berlanga as a result of he wanted somebody with sufficient following to compete for followers with the UFC occasion going down on the identical evening, September 14th, in Las Vegas. Since Alvarez wouldn’t chew the bullet and combat David Benavidez, Berlanga was the subsequent smartest thing.
