Edgar Berlanga and Padraig McCrory weighed 167.8 lbs at Friday’s weigh-in today for their super middleweight 12-round headliner this Saturday night, live on DAZN Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida.
In hindsight, promoter Eddie Hearn should have put Berlanga (21-0, 16 KOs) and McCrory (18-0, 9 KOs) on the undercard and placed Cuban talent Andy Cruz in the main event, as there’s more interest from boxing fans in his fight than there is in the Berlanga-McCrory clash.
It’s understandable, though, as Cruz is destined for world title honors and potentially superstardom and you can’t say the same about Berlanga, who is more a local East Coast fighter, popular mostly in New York City area.
Berlanga says he wants to fight Canelo Alvarez or Jaime Munguia next if he’s victorious against McCory. It sounds pretty farfetched, but we’ll see if Hearn can wrangle a deal.
Co-Main Event: Cruz and Zamarripa Ready for Action
In the chief support weights, 2020 Cuban Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz and his opponent Bryan Zamarripa both weighed in at 135 lbs for their 12-round lightweight clash.
Weigh-in results
Edgar Berlanga 167.8 vs. Padraig McCrory 167.8
Andy Cruz 135 vs. Brayan Zamarripa 135
Shakhram Giyasov 146.8 vs. Pablo Cesar Cano 146.2
Antonio Vargas 117.6 vs. Jonathan Rodriguez 118
Yankiel Rivera 111.8 vs. Andy Dominguez 111.6
Aaron Aponte 141 vs. Joseph Fernandez 140.4
“I’m close. I’m right there for that fight. Like I said today at the press conference, I’m not focused on them guys right now,” said Edgar Berlanga to Boxing Social when asked how close he was for challenging the champions, Canelo Alvarez and David Morrell at super middleweight.
“My main focus is this Saturday. I got a tough Irishman [McCrory], and we got Irish in the building. I’m coming to fight. I got that fighter’s mentality. I want to get through this fight, win spectacularly, and look like a superstar.
“Then from there, we can go on from there and talk about whoever we want, Canelo or Munguia that is there, that we can fight.
“I love the spotlight. I’ve been loving it since I was a kid. Obviously, I got the opportunity to be here and have the spotlight with a massive fight this Saturday. It feels good. I’m happy,” said Berlanga.