After his tougher-than-expected fight against middleweight Jason Quigley last Saturday night, the hulking 168-pounder Edgar Berlanga wants to cash in right away in his next contest for Matchroom, with him & promoter Eddie Hearn wanting Jaime Munguia next at the “big house” at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Focusing exclusively on the money the fight against the 26-year-old Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs) would make in New York, that’s the match-up that Berlanga (21-0, 16 KOs) wants next.
It’s unclear why Berlanga & Hearn are in such a big hurry to fight Munguia and Gennadiy Golovkin because they should be focusing on fights that will develop him at 168.
Munguia is basically a middleweight and looked poor beyond words in his first fight at super middleweight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko on June 10th on DAZN.
If Berlanga has confidence in himself, he should be continuing his development so that he can compete with these 168-pounders, David Benavidez & David Morrell Jr, both of which are the same age as Edgar but far more advanced.
After last night’s performance, you can’t put Berlanga anywhere close to the level of Benavidez & Morrell. Those guys are the same age, maybe a little younger in Morrell’s case, but so much better than Berlanga. They would have destroyed Quigley in one or two rounds last night.
Those fighters weren’t just trying to cash-in right away like Berlanga is doing. They’ve been focusing on getting better, not just looking to make money, as Berlanga is seemingly obsessed with.
The way Berlanga is only thinking about money gives the impression that his career is created for a cash-out purpose and not for winning world titles, accomplishing something in the sport, and creating a legacy.
Hearn wants Munguia next for Berlanga
“We always like to push the boundaries and do something different. I do want Edgar to fight in Puerto Rico, and I think if we didn’t land the Munguia fight or something like that, maybe that’s something we do next,” said Eddie Hearn to the media last Saturday night about where Edgar Berlanga could fight next after his successful warm-up fight against Jason Quigley.
“There’s something a little bit different but I also want to
keep the momentum of what we started tonight. I think Billy Joe Saunders isn’t going to be ready this side of the year for Edgar Berlanga but I think he will be a great fight. He’s a big name.
“John Ryder is a very tough fight. You saw him go 12 with Canelo Alvarez. so I think there’s there are loads of fights that could be made. You’ve got Caleb Plant. You’ve got obviously Benavidez, and you’ve got Morrell. You’ve got Charlo, you’ve got loads of super middleweights.
Berlanga looking to cash in
“There’s the other side of the street if that’s what you want to call it, but we don’t care really. We’re doing our own thing and you
know that the DAZN will be very keen on Munguia against Berlanga. Munguia does great numbers, and so does Berlanga. It’s just a tremendous fight,” said Hearn.
“They’re great Fighters,” said Berlanga when asked about his thoughts on John Ryder & Billy Joe Saunders. “At that level, they’re going to come to play. I feel like GGG is going to come to play. Ryder, you seen him fight twelve rounds against Canelo. That’s the biggest guy [money-wise] at 168 right now.
“Munguia is another guy. He had a tremendous fight with my brother Sergiy, but right now, I feel like the biggest fight is Munguia. He’s Mexican, he’s young, he’s my age and we both do numbers.
“I know for a fact that we could do crazy numbers out here in New York at the Garden. We can sit down with my dad, [manager] Keith Connolly, and the bossman [Eddie Hearn] and we can make it happen.
“The twelfth round, that’s me [againt Quigley]. Let your hands go; push the fight. Kill. Obviously, you seen the results of that. I almost got him out of there. From right there, we’re going to take off,” said Berlanga.
