Canelo Alvarez Retains His Unified 168-Pound Middleweight Title

First Career defeat For Edgar Berlanga

Canelo Alvarez expressing his triumph after the final bell /

By Kemboi Robert

Canelo Drops Berlanga early in the fight considering he hasn’t won since he become the undisputed champion at 168Ibs when he halted Caleb Plant in 2021 but did drop Berlanga over in just the third round.

Canelo didn’t manage to knockout Berlanga as promised but was able to land a few brutal punches on Berlanga and the fighters had to be separated multiple times during the rounds. Alvarez seemed to take an exception on Berlanga’s tactics for which he had been warned for head butting at one point. “I will get a little angry,” Alvarez said. “A Mexican man,” The crowd roared in laughter.

“I am the best fighter in the world,” Alvarez said, drawing cheers from the crowd in the Arena.

It was not a walk in the park but Canelo Alvarez controlled the fight ending to be unanimous decision the judges who scored it 117-110-118-109 and 118-109.

“Now what are they going to say?” Alvarez said during his post-fight interview. “I fight younger fighters. They always talk. …My experience, my talent, my hard work, my intelligence, everything together makes me the best.”

Berlanga had had a smooth career and was in disbelief on the end result resulting on a long exchange with Alvarez after the fight. “And it just sucks that before I even got to speak to him usually fighters get to have an interaction before they fight -it was just, we got to the fight and we signed the contract. I was just telling that he was my idol, since I was a kid I looked up to him and felt bad that we had to give bad blood to each other before the first-time meeting to give thanks because I looked up to him.” Berlanga said at a media interview after the match.

“I watched him grow up, when I was an amature going into the pros, and I just wanted to thank him for the opportunity. He’s at that point where he could pick and choose his fighters.”

“I could have done a lot more. But I was in there with a legend, man,” Berlanga said

The next time we see Canelo in a ring will be in a much bigger fight.