Canelo Vs. Berlanga Slammed – ‘Not Happy, Cherry Picking’
Canelo Alavrez’s decision to fight Edgar Berlanga has caused a massive backlash on social media.
That is according to reporter Chris Mannix. The Mexican was stripped of his IBF belt as he will defend his three titles at 168. Alvarez chose to avoid facing his IBF mandatory William Scull in favor of Berlanga on Mexican Independence Weekend.
There was a widespread reaction to this. It ended the hopes of fans seeing the David Benavidez fight. The Mexican Monster has said he will stay at 175 pounds as he targets the winner of Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol for undisputed.
Canelo Vs. Berlanga
Canelo’s fight will also clash with UFC 306. The UFC card will hold the arena’s first-ever combat sports event in history. Sean O’Malley will defend his UFC Bantamweight Title against Merab Dvalishvili, a more competitive event. Canelo’s previous two PPV’s have set fans back a lot.
He charged $84.99 for the Jermell Charlo fight while requesting $89.99 for the Jaime Munguia fight. Since neither of those fighters were seen as posing a big threat, it did not sit well with fans. The Berlanga fight will likely do that, with Mannix making it clear that fans were unhappy.
“Berlanga is going to make a big jump in this. I don’t take social media to be the end-all, be-all, but the backlash I’ve seen on it has been pretty significant where people knew this was coming, the criticism has come in waves,” Mannix said
If Canelo gets past Berlanga, he will have a big decision to make. Terence Crawford is the biggest name he has been linked with. However, Bud may not be interested in taking that fight. A Canelo fight allowed Crawford to become an undisputed three-weight world champion with one fight.
Without he IBF belt, Bud may feel it is not worth pursuing. He is also boxing Israil Madrimov on August 3 in his first fight at 154. A win makes Crawford a four-division champion, meaning he could target undisputed at 154 instead.
Canelo’s Other Options
Outside of that, Canelo could pursue fights with Jermall Charlo and Chris Eubank Jr. Charlo, a well-known name in the US. However, he was out of the sport for over two years due to mental health issues. Although he returned last year to beat Jose Benavidez Jr., dethroning Canelo would take some doing.
As for the Eubank fight, that would only sell in the UK. Eubank has a big following in the UK, having headlined numerous PPVs. But since Canelo fights in the US, would he be willing to crossover to the UK? The lack of risk on Canelo’s part is not helping his cause.
“I do think this is one of the examples where social media is rather representative of what the public is thinking at large. It’s just a hard sell. I haven’t seen the odds yet. I imagine Canelo is going to be -2000 or -2500 in that range. We all know what’s going to happen on fight night.
On the plus side for Canelo, he’s going to get a knockout, I’m sure, finally for the first time since he knocked out Caleb Plant in November 2021. I think Edgar Berlanga will sell the fight well. Now, we’re at the point where people are saying, ‘We know he’s never going to fight Benavidez,’ and maybe there’s some backlash and protest,” Mike Coppinger stated
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