Edgar Berlanga believes he’s ready to get back to his spiteful best as he closes in on his crunch showdown with Padraig McCrory at Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida on February 24, live worldwide on DAZN.
Berlanga (21-0 16 KOs) has promised to kick on from a dominant 12th round in his last fight against Irishman in Jason Quigley, where he floored the former Olympian twice to put an exclamation mark on a wide points win in New York in June.
That fight ended a year’s absence from the ring and was a first fight back with trainer Marc Farrait after four years apart. The 26 year old revealed that his time out and injuries in camp affected him for the Quigley fight, but those knocks are now behind him and with the introduction of highly regarded strength and conditioning coach Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia and a fresh focus in his tight-knit Tampa base, ‘The Chosen One’ feels that he’s in the shape of his life to take on the unbeaten Belfast man McCrory (18-0 9 KOs)
“The 12th round of my last fight, I feel like that’s really woken me up,” said Berlanga. “I haven’t missed anything, I know I have got the power to hurt anybody, and I feel different as a fighter, mentally, physically and spiritually. I know that there’s going to be fireworks coming from me on February 24, that’s a fact. I’m coming for the KO. He can say whatever he wants, but at the end of the day we have to go in there and tussle.
“Me at my best, nobody is f**king with me. When I am 100 per cent, which you’ll see on February 24, I am unstoppable.
“I’ve sacrificed a lot, changing my environment, coming to the suburbs and being fully locked in on myself and my craft. I’ve refocused on the small details of my style to bring the best out of me. So, from all that right there, it’s going to be something amazing.
“There is jealousy. I’m here in Tampa now and there’s a lot of people out there that were acting like they were my friends, and they weren’t. People that were close to me that were envying me, so I got rid of all those people and I’m just focused on myself and my team, and I feel that with God with me, the sky is the limit and there’s nothing stopping me.
“I’ll be one of the best 168lb fighters in the world. I think that after this fight my name is going to be buzzing again, and people will be talking about me and Canelo in September or Jaime Munguia. I feel those fights are there to be made and it’s time to go capture a belt.
“I’m not the guy that fought Jason, and he’s going to see that. I’m getting better and better. I was four years away from Marc before that fight and I went through a lot of injuries in that camp.
“I’m on a different level now physically. I’m sparring 15, 16 rounds with three or four different guys, and I didn’t get a chance to do that in my last camp with the injuries and coming back to camp overweight with the lay-off and not having a promoter, going through some depression in New York. We brought in ‘Memo’ who every knows has worked with the best, and we know we can go 12 strong rounds and go at it hard, and I know that if I do that, no one can stand a chance with me.”
Berlanga and McCrory clash on a big night of action in Orlando, where the co-feature pits Cuban Lightweight sensation Andy Cruz (2-0 1 KO) against Mexican Brayan Zamarippa (14-2 5 KOs) for the IBF International and WBA Continental Latin-American titles.
Shakhram Giyasov (14-0 9 KOs) and Pablo Cesar Cano (35-8-1 25 KOs) battle it out in an eliminator for the WBA World Welterweight title, while the main card on DAZN sees another World title eliminator as Antonio Vargas (17-1 9 KOs) and Jonathan Rodriguez (17-1-1 7 KOs) aim to take a step closer to the WBA World Bantamweight crown.
Yankiel Rivera (4-0 2 KOs) closes the Before The Bell section of the card with his first title fight as he takes on Andy Dominguez (10-0 5 KOs) for the WBA and WBC Continental Americas Flyweight titles, with Cuban Heavyweight Herich Ruiz (4-0 3 KOs) meets Mitch Williams (16-10-3 11 KOs) over eight rounds and Aaron Aponte (8-1-1 2 KOs) takes on Joseph Fernandez (17-5-3 6 KOs) over eight rounds Super-Lightweight.