Edgar Berlanga is unbothered by the thought of not having a direct path to enter the Canelo Alvarez sweepstakes.
A win on Saturday was never going to guarantee such a fight for the unbeaten Nuyorican, who is focused first on the current task at hand. The motivation to get past Jason Quigley was never to go straight to Alvarez but to land the type of fights that would build toward that opportunity.
There is plenty of name value along that route as well. Gennadiy Golovkin, Jaime Munguia, Jermall Charlo, Billy Joe Saunders, John Ryder—all of those names were mentioned throughout fight week, though none take precedence over Ireland’s Quigley. At least not through Saturday evening.
“I feel great and I’m ready to go. For me, there’s bigger fish out there,” Berlanga said of the realistic options for his immediate future. “They’re talking about the Triple Gs, the Charlos. I’m ready to step into the ring with them.
“I just have to beat the sh!t out of Jason Quigley to get there. That’s what it is, this weekend.”
Berlanga-Quigley is a scheduled 12-round super middleweight bout that headlines this Saturday on DAZN from Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York City.
The event marks Berlanga’s first fight in 54 weeks as well as his debut with Matchroom Boxing, with whom he signed earlier this year. At the time, Mexico’s Alvarez (59-2-2, 39KOs) still had one more fight under his working relationship with Matchroom and DAZN, which came in a twelve-round win over Ryder atop a May 6 Pay-Per-View event from Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico.
It was theorized at the time that—with a win on Saturday—Brooklyn’s Berlanga (20-0, 16KOs) would somehow advance to the top of the queue simply through his new promotional alignment with Matchroom. It was ever the plan, nor is that a possibility given the recent news that Alvarez is prepared to enter a multi-fight deal with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) beginning with a Showtime PPV fight in September.
Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn made a point to note upon signing Berlanga that he would need at least two spectacular wins to earn such a superfight. Even at that, he would still have to be chosen by Alvarez and that fight is not currently in the cards.
For now, the order of business for the unbeaten contender is to get reacquainted with the ring and to get past Quigley (20-2, 14KOs), a former middleweight title challenger.
“It’s a big weekend. I’m back home. Year layoff, new promotion,” noted Berlanga, who has not fought since last June 11, which also took place at Hulu Theater. “I’m back home and ready to perform. I’ve been prepping really hard for him. Respect to Jason and his team but we’re gonna handle our business on Saturday night.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox