SAN ANTONIO – Edgar Berlanga is poised for his ring return.
The popular Nuyorican super middleweight will next face Ireland’s Jason Quigley atop a June 24 DAZN show from Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York City. Berlanga confirmed the fight while on site for Saturday’s DAZN show from Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas.
Berlanga (20-0, 16KOs)—who fights at the venue for the third straight time—will end a career-long 54-week layoff as he fights for the first time since signing with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing earlier this year. The 25-year-old Brooklyn native previously fought for Top Rank before the two parties amicably split after a three-plus year working relationship.
A good chunk of the inactive stretch was due to a six-month suspension dealt to Berlanga following his ten-round, unanimous decision win over Alexis Angulo last June 11 at MSG Hulu Theater. The ESPN headliner took place on the eve of the 65th annual National Puerto Rican Day parade held in midtown Manhattan, the first time Berlanga topped a boxing event on that weekend, carrying out a tradition created by promoter Top Rank in 2005.
The extra attention paid to the event didn’t bode well for Berlanga, who was caught on camera attempting to bite Angulo during the seventh-round of their super middleweight bout. The act went undisciplined by referee Ricky Gonzalez in real time but was immediately brought to the attention of the NYSAC in the days after the televised event. Berlanga was dealt a retroactive six-month suspension for the incident which ended December 11—one day after Top Rank’s final show of 2022 which functionally shut down Berlanga’s ring campaign for the year.
It also marked the end of their 11-fight stretch together, as Berlanga and his team—including high-powered manager Keith Connolly—opted to ink with Matchroom Boxing. The obvious plan will be to build him as an attractive option for undisputed super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
For now, Berlanga will get reacquainted in the ring against a familiar name but a longshot underdog.
Quigley will enter his second straight fight at super middleweight following an unsuccessful bid in his first major title fight in his previous U.S appearance. The veteran fringe contender from Balleybofey, Ireland was blasted out inside of two rounds by Demetrius Andrade, who made the fifth and final defense of his WBO middleweight title fight in their November 2021 DAZN headliner from SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.
The setback ended a three-fight win streak for Quigley (20-2, 14KOs), all of which took place in the U.S. He returned home and to the win column in a ten-round decision over sub .500 Gabor Gorbics on April 1 in Dublin, which marked his first fight as a full-fledged super middleweight.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox