Love him or hate him, it’s a great time to be Edgar Berlanga at the moment.
The brash and flashy super middleweight who famously began his pro career with first-round stoppages in 16 consecutive fights, rebounded from a one-sided loss to Canelo Alvarez in their pay-per-view clash last fall to brutally finish Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz via first-round knockout on March 15. The fight served as the final bout of his promotional deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sport.
Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs), who was credited with taking Alvarez’s best punches in pushing him to the 12-round distance, is now a free agent and the 27-year-old, with the help of powerful manager Keith Connolly, is looking to cash in big against the biggest names in the sport.
“I’m in the best position of my life. I’m like a tsunami about to hit,” Berlanga told CBS Sports. “Piles and piles and piles of money are going to be raining on me. I just came off of another first-round knockout. I just went through this guy after everything I’ve been through. They tried to put me [in the] co-main event and back at the Caribe Royale [in Orlando, Florida]. I’m a big name and I was supposed to be main eventing in Puerto Rico, but it’s OK. I went through him like a hot knife through butter.”
Along with missing weight for the fight, Berlanga was criticized for his level of opposition in the fight against Gonzalez-Ortiz (20-1-1, 16 KOs), a former Puerto Rican Olympian who served 10 years in jail for armed robbery before mounting a comeback in 2024. Yet, the acceptance of the fight turned out to be a strategic move for Berlanga, according to Connolly, to set up bigger things ahead, regardless if he ends up re-signing with Hearn.
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Berlanga, who signed a multi-fight deal with Matchroom in February 2023 after a mutual divorce with Top Rank, said he’s open to talk to everyone from Al Haymon’s PBC and Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions to Saudi Arabian adviser Turki Alalshikh, who recently announced plans for a new promotion that will be run by Dana White and UFC parent company TKO Group.
“At the end of the day, there’s no hard feelings with no promoters. Business is business,” Berlanga said. “We could make the biggest fights happen but the money got to be right and I’m a boss now. You’re not my boss and I’m not your boss. We are going to partner up and we are going to do it the right way. But it has to be for a bag, at the end of the day, because people are coming to see us, not the promoters. We got to get paid that bag. If every fighter in the world decided to retire from boxing today, the promoters wouldn’t do shit, the TV networks wouldn’t be shit and nobody would be nothing. It’s true. We are the bosses. Fighters have to wake up and understand that.”
If Berlanga sounds like he has a chip on his shoulder, it’s becoming part of the entertainment package that he’s offering. Not only is Berlanga a big-time puncher who has the support of boxing’s diehard Puerto Rican fan base, he’s not afraid to play the heel and is a colorful trash talker who can sell fights. He has also attracted a celebrity clientele of fans, including rapper Fat Joe, who has walked Berlagna to the ring multiple times.
But if Alvarez, the Mexican icon and unified champion at 168 pounds, famously learned key lessons (both inside and out of the ring) from his own one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather in 2013 when he was just 23, Berlanga believes a similar transaction took place in his lone pro defeat.
“I learned from him that I’m my own boss,” Berlanga said. “Besides [Alvarez] being the money guy at 168 pounds, I’m the money guy, too. I know that any fight after him, I was going to be the A-side. I’ve got an island behind me, I’ve got a country behind me and I’ve got Puerto Rico. I’ve got a big, big, big fan base. This is about me now becoming my own entity.”
Berlanga, who said he is set to launch his own company called Chosen One Promotions (a play on his fighting nickname), noted he also learned from Alvarez how to cut out the middle man when it comes to collecting extra money for arena concessions and merchandise. It’s because of this that Berlanga said he’s more interested in taking meetings and signing deals with the networks or streaming platforms themselves — like DAZN and Prime Video — rather than simply handing over his power to a promoter.
“We want to sit down and go straight to the source,” Berlanga said. “I’m ready to strike a deal and make the biggest fights happen and just keep going and become a legend. [Alvarez] told me that I’m going to be a world champ and to just stay focused. He never told nobody that. He never gave anybody that advice after fighting them. He knows that soon he is going to be handing that torch [to me].”
Becoming rich and famous does leave one open for criticism, especially in today’s world that is dominated by social media chatter. Berlanga has certainly heard his fair share of it from those who believe he’s delusional about his talent and that he has turned a one-sided loss to Alvarez into a moral win complete with a victory tour.
“F— them. I don’t give a f— about a hater,” Berlanga said. “They don’t pay my bills. They don’t do anything for me, so f— them. Anybody that talks shit about Berlanga, f— them. They can do what they have to do, but I’m here and they aren’t going to do shit to me. Most of the time, it’s these freaking guys who don’t got nothing going on with their lives. They are fat, still live with their moms and are eating donuts on the couch. These guys don’t have a life and talk crap about a guy who goes into the ring and risks his life for his country. So, f— them, f— the haters. I want them to keep being haters. Just don’t be a fan of me. If you’re going to hate, just hate and stay on that side.”
According to Berlanga, ever since he made the walk to the ring to face Alvarez last September in T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and heard the boos and insults (about everything from his nationality to his mother’s looks), it hardened him. Now, Berlanga says he “kind of likes” the negativity and is motivated to prove people wrong.
One of those people is former super middleweight titleholder Caleb Plant, who heads Berlanga’s hit list at 168 pounds (which also includes Jaime Munguia and Jermall Charlo). It’s not that Berlanga is against going up to 175 pounds for big money fights against the likes of Dmitry Bivol, Artur Beterbiev, David Benavidez or David Morrell Jr., it’s just that he wants to clean out 168 pounds first and collect world titles (which is currently dependent upon getting a rematch with Alvarez).
Berlanga and Plant first traded harsh words in an electric face off in May 2024 outside T-Mobile Arena and have been at each other’s throats over social media ever since.
“[Plant] is always talking shit and I just want to break his face,” Berlanga said. “For him to still be talking, it’s because he hasn’t gotten like a real beatdown. Canelo and Benavidez didn’t beat him down because if they would’ve beaten him down, he wouldn’t be talking like this. He’s still talking shit so that means I will have to come in and end his career. After me, he’s done. I want to grab him, I want to destroy him. I want to put him in the hospital and I want his face to look different. I don’t want him to be the same fighter.
“That guy is easy work. He gets tired, he don’t like getting hit to the body and after six rounds, he’s done. He don’t got no skills or no heart. Once you start touching his mettle, it’s done. He’s over and he doesn’t have it. It’s not there.”
Regardless of who Berlanga signs with next, his plan is simple: win 2-3 big fights and prepare for a second opportunity against Alvarez in yet another chapter of the classic Mexico-Puerto Rico boxing rivalry.
“I’ll smash Canelo because when I fought him, I was only at 50%,” Berlanga said. “I went through MRIs during that camp. I had tendonitis all over my elbow and I was taking cortisone shots. I fought that guy at 50% on a six-week notice. I know I can smash him. Canelo is a great fighter but I know I have more. I took his best shot and he hasn’t got my best shot yet. You hit me with your best shot on my chin and I still got up and I took it. I was still talking shit and I still told you ‘f— you’ in the ring.
“So, what are you going to do to me? The only thing you could do is hit me with a f—ing Dragon Ball Z punch with flames coming out of your glove and then probably you would knock me out. I haven’t given you my shit yet. For the rematch, I want to see if you could take my shit.”
But when it comes to which boxer might fill the vacant gap of elite Puerto Rican stars which once formed a lineage including the likes of Hector Camacho, Felix Trinidad and Miguel Cotto, Berlanga believes, “I’m the guy, right now.” He isn’t necessarily interested, however, in convincing anyone else.
“I don’t feel like there is anybody that’s putting on for the way I am at that elite level and the top of the top,” Berlanga said. “I’m fighting big names, talking shit and looking good. I’m being humble but also being a guy who is not backing down from anybody and will tell you to f— off. I think I’m that guy right now but I let the fans choose. I’m not fighting for that position no more [like] when I was coming up. If you love me, you love me and if you hate me, you hate me. At the end of the day, you are still going to pay and watch me, motherf—er.”
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