By Norm Frauenheim (Ringside)
LAS VEGAS –On the scorecards, there was no upset.
But in the court of public opinion, there was a big one.
From pillar to post — sports book to social media, Edgar Berlanga had been mocked, dismissed and damned. The consensus was that Berlanga had no chance against Canelo Alvarez.
But Berlanga was there in the twelfth and final round, trading punches and more than a few words in a pay-per-view fight Saturday night in front of an announced crowd of 20,312 at T-Mobile Arena. Berlanga went the distance. Before opening bell, his chances at that were about as good as the Chicago White Sox winning the World Series.
At 27, Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) managed to surprise Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs), who promised a knockout before the eighth round. Early on, however, Berlanga displayed something Canelo didn’t expect. The younger man was– is –durable. Above all, he can take a punch.
In the third round, Canelo landed his best, a counter left that has stopped so many other Canelo challengers. It dropped Berlanga, flat on his rear end. But Berlanga did what so many have failed to do. He got up.
Canelo attacked, almost in a desperate pursuit to end it, then and there. But Berlanga had the presence of mind to elude those assaults and then to attack in his own right.
In the end, Canelo, still the unified super-middleweight champion, walked away with a solid decision, 118-109 on two cards and 117-110 on the third. But he didn’t fulfill his promised knockout, which means he didn’t dispel questions about how he’d do against David Benavidez or Terence Crawford. More on them later.
“No, I did good,” he said to a roaring crowd of Mexican partisans.. “Now, what are they going to say.”
There will be doubts. That’s a safe bet. He hasn’t scored a knockout in almost three years. Canelo has his critics and they will be out in force after going the distance against the underrated Puerto Rican. Canelo seemed to know that. Still, his confidence remains unshaken.
“I’m the best fighter in the world,” he said.
Dispute that claim, and many will. But his dominance at the box office remains unchallenged. He jammed T-Mobile with a crowd that was called a sellout. This side of Japan’s Naoya Inoue, what other boxer in the world can do that these days? Dumb question.
Boxing has its own way of saying: Follow The Money. Follow Canelo. That won’t change, tomorrow or until he retires, perhaps when the 34-year-old fighter turns 37..
But his challengers are younger and only getting better. Berlanga was evidence of that.
“I’m upset because at the end of the day I’m a winner,” Berlanga said.
He was Saturday and he will be again.
Meanwhile, questions about Canelo’s future remain unanswered Crawford at a 168 pounds? Benavidez?
“I”m going to rest and then I’m going to decide what’s next,” he said.
Garcia takes knee, Lara retains title
Danny Garcia apologized.
But an angry crowd booed.
Forget apologies, a near capacity crowd at T-Mobile Arena wanted a fight and it didn’t get one in an advertised middleweight title fight between Garcia and a defending belt-holder, 41-year-old Erislandy Lara Saturday night in the final bout before the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga main event.
Garcia, a former junior-welterweight and welterweight champion fighting at 160 pounds for the first time, took a knee in the final second of the ninth round and then surrendered on his stool seconds before the 10th.
“I’m sorry,” Garcia (37-4, 21 KOs) said. “I tried. You can’t succeed if you don’t try.”
Garcia wasn’t able to do much of anything against the middle-aged Lara (31-3-3, 18 KOs), who claims to be the oldest champion in Cuban history.
Presumably, Lara will schedule a few more title defenses. He’ll be 42 in April. It wasn’t clear what Garcia or his volatile father trainer Angel will do next. But the boos included an unmistakable message:
Retire.
Caleb Plant stops McCumby for TKO win
Caleb Plant and Trevor McCumby exchanged insults. They mocked each other in word and gesture. But this was no clown show.
Not in the end.
Plant and McCumby settled their difference along the ropes, boxing’s trenches where blood and bruises are more decisive than words can ever be.. That’s where Plant was at his brutal best. That’s also where he won, pounding McCumby with an avalanche of punches that rained off him from round to round.
At 2:59 of the ninth round of the contentious super-middleweight fight on the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga card at Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, it was over. That’s when the referee stepped in and halted the brawl.
Plant (23-2, 14 KOs) was the TKO winner, leaving McCumby, a former prospect, to ponder what he’ll do next after his first loss, yet only his fourth fight since 2018 .
McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs), a Chicago native now living in Glendale AZ, scored a knockdown in the fourth, although it looked as if a push instead of a punch sent Plant backpedaling into the ropes onto the canvas. McCumby danced after that one. He shook his hips at Plant.
As it turned out, however, Plant was just warming up. He began to pin McCumby on the ropes, punishing him with successive blows from the fifth until the inevitable end.
“It was a pretty tough fight,” Plant, a former super middleweight champion, said. “I was just easing in. I proved that I can fight on the inside tonight and I did what I had to do.
“He caught me pulling out and hit me in the shoulder, but that’s part of the game. He came in with wild punches and I just had to stay focused. That’s what champions do..”
Romero wins one-sided decision, hopes for title shot
Rollie Romero wanted a steppingstone.
He got one, scoring a unanimous decision over Manuel Jaimes in junior-welterweight bout Saturday on the Canelo-Bernlanga card at Mobile Arena Saturday night.
“I needed a tough 10-round fight against someone hungry and that’s what I got tonight,” Romero (16-3, 13 KOs), a Las Vegas fighter said. “I was doing a lot of stuff tonight that I should have done in my earlier fights.
“Jaimes was coming forward a lot, but I was controlling the pace. The fight was going how I wanted it to. In the later rounds I started coming forward more and landing more body shots.
“Hopefully I’m fighting for a title next.
“I have my eye on any of the champions.”
Jaimes (16-2-1, 11 KOs), of Stockton CA, simply couldn’t keep up with Romero, who simply outworked him.
“The judges saw what they saw” he said. “I’d have to watch the tape to be able to score it myself. I could have been more active, that would have helped me land more.”
Fulton scores controversial decision over Carlos Castro
Carlos Castro got the knockdown.
Got the loss, too.
For Stephen Fulton, there were boos.
“A shout out to the boos,” Fulton said.
Fulton accepted the booing, because he got the win too, a controversial split decision Saturday over Castro, a resilient Phoenix featherweight whose bid for a significant upset was denied by some debatable scoring.
Lisa Giampa had it 95-94, for Castro. On David Sutherland’s card, it was 96-93 for Fulton. On Don Trella’s card, it 95-94, also for Fulton
Castro (30-3, 14 KOs), a skilled boxer, pursued Flulton early and often with a slick mix of head shots and body punches. The early attack seemed to surprise Fulton (22-1, 8 KOs), who hadn’t fought since getting knocked out by pound-for-pound front-runner Naoya Inoue in Tokyo in July 2023.
There were moments when it looked as if Fulton underestimated Castro, especially his power. In the fifth, however, Castro delivered an overhand right that stunned Fulton. It also might have awakened Fulton to a threat he might not have foreseen in his first fight in more than a year.
It knocked him down.
For the next couple of rounds, Fulton was cautious. And Castro was aggressive. moving forward with quick hands to the body and head. In the seventh and eighth, a still-arriving crowd for the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga main event began to chant:
“Castro, Castro.”
By then, Fulton had begun to rally. landing repeated head shots, all powered by the realization that the fight was up for grabs.
Again in the ninth and the 10th, it looked as if Castro had begun to tire. Yet, he answered Fulton’s punches with some of his own, especially in the fight’s final, furious seconds.
“Castro, Castro,” the crowd chanted.
Apparently, Sutherland and Trella didn’t hear them
Boom, one big counter from Ricardo Salas scores a stoppage
One counter was enough.
Ricardo Salas, a Mexico City welterweight, threw it.
It floored Venezuelan Roiman Villa, draining him of any motivation to continue. He stayed down, wiping blood away from a wound beneath one eye and waving one hand in apparent surrender midway through the third round.
Salas (20-2-2, 15 KOs) threw it – a straight right hand, — just as Villa (26-3, 24 KOs) missed wildly with a lunging punch. Sala followed with a glancing left. But the counter did the job, finishing Villa at 2:06 of the third.
Eddy Reynoso-trained Goe Lopez wins decision
Geo Lopez had power, hand speed and quick feet.
Only a stoppage was missing.
It eluded Lopez (17-0, 12 KOs), a junior lightweight from Orlando, in the eighth and furious final round Saturday. A powerful left hand sent Ricky Mediana down and tumbling onto the canvas.
Somehow, however, Medina (15-3, 8 KOs) scrambled to his feet. He survived. But Lopez , who had Canelo trainer Eddy Reynoso in his corner, won, scoring a one-sided decision Saturday on the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga card at T-Mobile Arena
Canelo-Berlanga Undercard: Middleweight suffers scary KO
Three fights, three second-round stoppages.
But this one was devastating, momentarily scary.
Cuban middleweight Yoenli Feliciano Hernandez‘ perfect record (5-0, 5 KOs) suggests world-class power. It was more than just a suggestion Saturday in the third fight on a card featuring Canelo Alvarez-versus-Edgar Berlanga Saturday at Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
Hernandez’ power put Jose Sanchez Charles down, flat on his face midway at 1:47 of the second. Charles (21-6-1, 12 KOs), of Mexico, stayed on he canvas, motionless and face down, for several long moments before he was able to climb to his feet and onto a nearby stool.
Eventually, he stood up and seemed to say he was OK to medical personnel who had rushed to his side. Then, he waved at a sparse crowd of fans.They applauded, relieved to see the fighter walk out of the ring under his own power.
Canelo-Berlanga Card: Second fight delivers another second round stoppage
Two fights, two stoppages, both in the second round.
Lawrence King (17-1, 14 KOs) delivered an encore of the Canelo-Berlanga card’s opening salvo, scoring a second-round stoppage of Vaughn Williams Saturday at Vegas’ T- Mobile Arena.
King, a light-heavyweight from San Bernardino CA., dropped Williams (12-2, 8 KOs), of South Carolina, twice in the second. It was over at 2:15 of the round.
First Bell: Canelo-Berlanga show opens with quick KO
The doors opened, the first bell sounded and Bek Nurmaganbet took care of business before anybody among a handful of early arrivals could get to their seats.
That’s how fast the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga card got underway Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
Nearly eight hours before the main event and about an hour after high noon, Nurmaganbet ((12-0, 10 KOs) a super-middleweight from Kazakhstan, wasted little time and not much energy, overwhelming Joshua Conley (17-7-1, 11 KOs) within two rounds. Conley, of San Bernardino CA, never had a chance. Nurmaganbet stopped him in the closing seconds of the second.