Canelo drops Berlanga to retain super middleweight titles

Saul Canelo Alvarez did not get the knockout he desired in front of a sold-out crowd at the T-Mobile Arena Las Vegas last Saturday (14-09-24). Canelo in his 66th fight, is still one of the P4P stars in boxing; Alvarez nevertheless proved he had too much experience and class and was a level above previously undefeated Edgar Berlanga winning a wide unanimous decision, 118-109,118-109 and 117-110. Alvarez retained his WBC, WBA and WBO super middleweight titles. 

 Alvarez knocked down Berlanga with a left hook in the third round. Berlanga enhanced his reputation after suffering his first career defeat. Throughout the twelve rounds was not landing with anything of note to deter Alvarez, who was walking him down for the entirety of the fight. Berlanga received a warning for an intentional headbutt, and the fighters almost came to blows after the illegal punch landed. 

Alvarez was making his eighth super middleweight title defence on Mexican Independence Day weekend, on the PBC headlined Prime video pay-per-view. Berlanga had good moments during the fight, but Canelo's chin, work rate, Jab, also the left hook were the keys to victory. As the final bell rang, respect was evident, as Berlanga apologised to Canelo for his behaviour during the fight and congratulated him on his victory. 

“ I did good", Alvarez said, "Now what are they gonna say? They said I don't fight young fighters. They always talk, but I'm the best fighter in the world. My experience, my talent, my hard work was the difference. Everything together, because if you have a talent and you don't have discipline you have nothing. If you have discipline and you don't have talent, you have nothing. So, you need to combine both and hard work," 

Alvarez stated he would like to avenge his defeat to Dmitry Bivol, one of his only two defeats, the other to Hall of Famer Floyd Mayweather Jr. Bivol challenges Artur Berterbiev for the undisputed light-heavyweight title on October 12th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

Following Canelo's dominant victory, Terence Crawford, with the aid of Turki Alalshikh, called out Alvarez from across the UFC 306 Sphere event in Las Vegas on the same night on social media platform Instagram Live "Yo Turki, tell them we are going to go for Canelo next", said Crawford. "Yes," replied Turki Alalshikh. "Let's go! Canelo, come on. We are ready." 

On the co-main event Erislandy Lara 41, the oldest active world champion, defended his WBA middleweight title against former two-weight world champion Danny Garcia, who was having his first bout in over two years at his career heaviest 157lbs 3 pounds off the middleweight limit. In the ninth round, Garcia took a knee after taking a straight left hand, which didn't appear to have much behind it, then his father Angel Garcia made the decision to stop the fight.

Also on the undercard, former IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant came off the canvas to defeat Trevor McCumby by technical knockout in the ninth round to claim the interim WBA super middleweight title in his first fight since March 2023.