Recent Matchroom Boxing signee super middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga won’t be ready for Canelo Alvarez or any of the other sharks at 168 like David Benavidez for another year and a half to two years, says his former coach Andre Rozier.
The unbeaten Berlanga (20-0, 16 KOs) won’t be ready by this time next year to face the elite-level fighters at super middleweight in Rozier’s view of his development.
Whether Berlanga is ready or not, his new promoter Eddie Hearn is expected to rush him into the ring to face Canelo because he says he’s two fights away from facing the Mexican star.
Berlanga’s first fight for Matchroom Boxing will be in June, and it’s believed to be 36-year-old Daniel Jacobs, who has looked long in the tooth in his last couple of fights.
Hearn says Berlanga will need to prove himself before he’ll get the fight with Canelo, but if he’s going to be matched against guys at Jacobs’ level, it suggests that he’s going to get the fight with Alvarez after a couple of wins against weak opposition.
In other words, Berlanga won’t be ready for Canelo and will lose to him in the third and final fight of his three-fight contract with Matchroom.
“I think it’s fantastic. He’s found a new home, and he should be getting ready for his first bout with Matchroom and I’d like to see him focus up, prepared, and get in there and do what I know he can actually do,” said Andre Rozier to Fighthype about Edgar Berlanga signing with Matchroom Boxing after leaving Top Rank.
“I think the move to Matchroom was a better strategic move [for Berlanga]. PBC is loaded with lots of competition. Most of those guys if they weren’t world champions, they still are.
“It’s tough waters. You really changed sharpen your craft fighting sharks left & right. It’s very difficult. I think he still needs more seasoning. He had a long layoff. That’s stagnation of his activity, and he needs to clear rust, get sharp, and be prepared,” said Rozier when asked if he believes Berlanga is ready to fight Canelo Alvarez.
“So I don’t think one year is going to do it. He’s still in the fundamental forming stages. He just needs work to be right because he’s still young.
“Somebody he can think a little bit with so he can formulate a technique,” said Rozier when asked who Berlanga should fight next. Not somebody that is going to be smoking a 1000 miles an hour. He doesn’t need that right now.
“He just needs somebody that he can correlate and articulate his punches in the ring and create some nuances and work on his craft, more important than anything else.
“In my schedule of things from just working with Edgar, as long as he’s focused and concentrating on boxing, I would say a year and a half or two years,” Rozier said when asked how long it’ll take before Berlanga is ready for Canelo, Demetrius Andrade, and David Benavidez.
