Edgar Berlanga (21-0, 16 KOs) got off to a good start with his first fight with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing by defeating his tune-up opponent Jason Quigley (20-3, 14 KOs) on Saturday night in New York at the Hula Theater. 116-108, 116-108, and 118-106.
Berlanga’s corner was routinely reading him the riot act between rounds, lighting him up for looking bad and getting countered by Quigley.
There was nothing Berlanga could do about it because Quigley had the hand speed advantage and was the better boxer of the two by far.
The more Berlanga’s corner got on his case, the more he swung for the fences and was countered by Quigley. It was fortunate for Berlanga that he wasn’t fighting one of the powerful super middleweights like David Benavidez or David Morrell Jr because those guys would have likely knocked him out with their counter shots.
Eddie Hearn said after the fight that he wants to match Berlanga against Jaime Munguia or Gennadiy Golovkin next. The chances of him getting either of those guys to agree to fight Berlanga are zero.
It’s more likely that Hearn will be stuck using one of his fighters, Billy Joe Saunders or John Ryder, next for Berlanga. Those guys would be a lateral move from Quigley for Berlanga to fight.
For Hearn to lure Canelo into fighting Berlanga after his three-fight deal with PBC is up, he’s going to need to take a BIG risk by using David Benavidez or David Morrell Jr because he’s NOT going to get the Oscar De La Hoya-promoted Jaime Munguia.
The 41-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin will not agree to return to the ring to fight Berlanga either.
Interestingly, Berlanga was less than happy afterwards, giving himself a “C” grade and blaming Quigley for making him look bad by fighting to survive instead of standing still in front of him so that he could knock him out.
Berlanga sounded very bitter, sounding as if he’d lost the fight rather than having won it by a wide twelve round unanimous decision by the scores. He then went into a mini-rant, blaming Quigley for fighting to survive.
He’d gotten so used to knocking out his opponents in the first 16 fights of his career. Top Rank spoiled Berlanga by matching him with terrible opposition, giving him the impression that he’s a better puncher than he actually is.
Berlanga dropped Quigley four times in the fight, but in reality, it was actually two knockdowns and two blown calls by the referee Harvey Dock, who seemed to be at the sleep at the wheel tonight.
Quigley tripped over his own feet in the fifth, and the referee Dock gave Berlanga credit for a knockdown. In the twelfth, Berlanga reached out and pressed down on Quigley’s head to force him to the canvas, and Dock surprisingly gave him credit for another knockdown.
Joe Cusumano stops Adam Kownacki
In the chief support bout, Joe Cusumano (22-4, 20 KOs) beat Adam Kownacki (20-4, 15 KOs) by an exciting 8th-round knockout in a scheduled 10-round fight.
Kownacki was down in the first, hurt in the seventh, and pulled out of the fighting in the eighth. It was a good scrap between two heavyweights with no defense, who were just throwing shots and hoping for the best.
Cusumano had recently been knocked out in the first round by Daniel Dubois.
