Canelo Alvarez fought a huge, cruiser-sized Edgar Berlanga, who reportedly entered the ring in a gigantic 193 lbs for his super middleweight title challenge on Saturday night.
(Credit: Sumio Yamada)
ESPN Knockout’s Salvador Rodriguez reports that Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) is retraining 25.4 lbs after weighing in at 167.6 lbs at Friday’s weigh-in. That would explain why Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) didn’t knock out Berlanga because he was fighting a cruiserweight.
The Necessary Security Protocols
Ideally, protocols should be in place to prevent weight manipulation like this, because it is dangerous for fighters who fight someone who competes so far below their natural weight class. Berlanga should be competing at lightweight, not super middleweight.
Inside the ring, Berlanga looked massive compared to Canelo, which was not good given the size differences between the two fighters.
With Berlanga’s size, Canelo didn’t have the power to knock out a fighter who didn’t belong in the 168 lb division. Berlanga should be fighting at 175 at least, if not in the cruiserweight division.
Light heavyweights rehydrate in the upper 180s to mid 190s for their fights, but you don’t hear a lot of super middleweights making that weight. Again, this is another reason sanctioning bodies need to enact strict 10lb rehydration limits to prevent fighters from gaming the system by fighting well with their frames to gain an advantage over smaller fighters.
“Edgar Berlanga entered the ring tonight at 193 pounds; that is, 25.4 pounds over the 167.6 he weighed on Friday. The Puerto Rican won by losing,” said Salvador Rodriguez XReveling the weight for the gigantic-looking Edgar Berlanga last Saturday night in his loss to the unified super middle champion Canelo Alvarez.
Berlanga wouldn’t be a factor if he was forced to fight in the 175lb division among the sharks in that weight class. Once Berlanga entered the dangerous oceans at lightweight, he immediately fell prey to fighters such as David Benavidez, David Morrell, Anthony Yarde and Callum Smith.
Even with the move his promoters at Matchroom made for him at 168, Berlanga never made it to a world title challenge against 175 lb champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
