Is Berlanga Overlooking Gonzalez-Ortiz?
Edgar Berlanga missed weight for his Saturday fight against Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz, raising question marks over his mindset.
Berlanga has his first fight since losing to Canelo Alvarez. The Puerto Rican came out second best, losing a unanimous decision. While he failed to win, he did earn a lot of praise for managing to last the distance. Meanwhile, Gonzalez-Ortiz is undefeated with a 20-0-1 record. He has stopped his last two opponents and 16 KOs to his name.
But this is the biggest test of his career, meaning he cannot afford to take things lightly. However, it is Berlanga who does not appear focused, as he missed weight by 1.6 pounds over the super middleweight limit. He hit the scales at 169.6 pounds, while Gonzalez-Ortiz weighed 167.4 pounds. Berlanga stated that he was suffering from flu, which may have hindered his preparation.
Berlanga Reacts
“People don’t know but I had the flu. I was struggling with my health, and I knew at a certain point, I couldn’t do it. Everybody that’s out there, they know I take this sport very serious, especially with my health. There’s nothing to say. We’re still getting the fight on. I want to say to my fans that the other is not what it is.
“We could have pulled out of the fight if we wanted to based on my health situation. I’m a warrior, bro. I’m just going to go out there and make the show happen. I had a lot of fans come out here, buy tickets, and plane tickets, flights, coming from Puerto Rico. We’re going to put on tomorrow. Tune in tomorrow. You’re going to see what happens. He’s got something to prove. Look what happened to Munguia,” Berlanga said
Berlanga’s Future
Nevertheless, Berlanga has been accused of overlooking his man. He was aiming to secure a fight with William Scull, the IBF Super Middleweight Champion. The rationale was that a win over Scull could have secured the Canelo rematch. However, Canelo will face Scull next for undisputed. Berlanga blamed Eddie Hearn for not putting the money up, as he missed out on the opportunity. But even if that were the case, Berlanga had not shown that he deserved a rematch with Canelo. He failed to trouble the Mexican, taking a one-sided beating in his first loss. Hearn was not impressed by Berlanga’s comments.
“It’s important to note that in our three fights with Edgar Berlanga, he headlined at Madison Square Garden against Jason Quigley. He headlined against Padraig McCrory here [Orlando, Florida], and then he headlined against Canelo Alvarez at the T-Mobile [Arena in Las Vegas]. He made over $12 million with us. We’ve completely changed his life and his career. What we’ve done is we’ve delivered everything we ever promised and more. We’re doing that again on Saturday night. It’s a good fight for him to get back to his winning ways and then move on to a bigger fight. If that’s with us, fantastic. We’d love to continue that relationship,” Hearn said
Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com.
