Boxing's biggest star Canelo Alvarez will defend his super middleweight championship against Edgar Berlanga on Sept. 14 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, sources told ESPN.
Alvarez, ESPN's No. 5 pound-for-pound fighter, will be the heavy favorite to dispatch Berlanga, who will be fighting at the top weight class for the first time. Mexico's Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) is the undisputed champion at 168 pounds, but the IBF title may not be on the line since his fight with the IBF mandatory challenger is delayed, sources said.
Alvarez, 34, is coming off a decision win in May over Jaime Munguia. Canelo has not scored a knockout since November 2021, but has scored takedowns in each of his last three fights.
Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) is a 27-year-old boxer from Brooklyn, New York, of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for starting his career with 16 first-round KOs. However, as his competition stiffened, Berlanga's next five opponents all held on to the finish. Berlanga's last action in the ring was a sixth-round KO of Padraig McCrory in February.
David Benavidez has been the public's top choice to fight Alvarez for years, but Canelo has shown no interest in the interim WBC super middleweight champion.
How did the Alvarez-Berlanga matchup come together? Who else was considered? Let's take a look at how Alvarez is preparing for another fight on Mexican Independence Day weekend:
Who else was in the running to fight Alvarez in September?
The other finalist was Chris Eubank Jr., according to sources. Eubank, 34, is the son of British boxer Chris Eubank, who starred in the 1990s in England.
Eubank would also have been a big underdog against Alvarez. He is coming off a 10th-round TKO win over Liam Smith last September that avenged a knockout loss to Smith earlier in the year.
Eubank is also a middleweight (ranked No. 4 by ESPN) and would have moved up in weight for the opportunity. While Eubank has reportedly attracted interest in the U.K., his name is less resonant than Berlanga's in the United States.
And what about Berlanga? Does he represent any threat to Álvarez?
There's nothing to suggest Berlanga, ESPN's No. 6 super middleweight, will present Alvarez with any problems inside the ring.
Berlanga doesn't appear to have the boxing skills necessary to compete with an all-time great, even with his good size and power at 168 pounds. Alvarez is an expert counterpuncher who knows how to set up traps for his opponents. He's also a fearsome puncher, even at 168 pounds, having won his first title at 154 in 2011.
But above all, Alvarez has far more experience than Berlanga. He has faced virtually every major opponent of the past ten years, from Floyd Mayweather to Miguel Cotto and a trio of fights with Gennadiy Golovkin.
Everything Berlanga brings to the ring, Alvarez has seen, and that could help him get his first KO in almost three years.
Why Alvarez won't face Benavidez?
Benavidez would represent a dangerous test for Alvarez, but up to this point, Alvarez has shown virtually no interest in the matchup boxing fans most want to see. Benavidez is a big, strong puncher who hits with plenty of power and appears to have considerable punch resistance.
Benavidez has also certainly earned a shot at Alvarez. He defeated Caleb Plant and Demetrius Andrade in impressive fashion last year. Benavidez claims that Canelo is avoiding a fight with him because he is a rising star of Mexican descent, and a loss would mean that Alvarez has passed the baton.
“I think he's afraid of losing and me taking all the spotlight,” Benavidez told ESPN in June. “… I don't really think he's afraid of me… I think he doesn't like me and he doesn't want another Mexican taking all the spotlight.”
Whatever the case, Benavidez is now campaigning at 175 pounds since realizing a fight with Alvarez was not on the horizon.
Who is left for Alvarez to face in a superfight after what amounts to a very active fight against Berlanga?
Assuming Alvarez handles his fight against Berlanga in impressive fashion, there is only one dance partner other than Benavidez who can put on a marquee event with Alvarez: Terence Crawford.
Crawford, 36, has lobbied for a shot at Alvarez since dismantling Errol Spence Jr. last July to win the undisputed welterweight championship. Crawford is ESPN's No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter and will return to the ring Aug. 3 in a junior middleweight title fight against Israil Madrimov.
The jump to 154 pounds brings Crawford closer in weight to Alvarez, but they are still two weight divisions apart. Alvarez said in May after his win over Munguia that he wasn't interested in fighting someone smaller than him because it's a lose-lose proposition for both.
But in recent months, rumors have been mounting that Alvarez would be willing to make such a fight next year. Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, is eager to pit Crawford against Canelo.
Crawford, of course, can help his case greatly by continuing his 11-fight KO streak with another over Madrimov, an underrated fighter who is an athletic puncher.
Why are Alvarez-Berlanga opposed to UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas?
Alvarez vs. Sergey Kovalev met at UFC 244: Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal in November 2019, and the image of Alvarez and his opponent sleeping in the locker room is hard to shake as they looked to avoid having co-main events happen. And those events were in different cities. There was a 95-minute gap between the co-main event (Ryan Garcia vs. Romero Duno) and the time Canelo-Kovalev began.
Now, two of the titans of the fight world will collide in Las Vegas: Alvarez-Berlanga and UFC 306, both fights taking place on September 14.
It's no surprise that Alvarez is fighting on that date. Mexican Independence Day weekend has long been one of two key dates reserved for boxing's biggest star (along with Cinco de Mayo weekend), a tradition that Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya had before him.
According to sources, PBC will present the event on Prime Video PPV with Matchroom Boxing promoting Berlanga. The PPV will also be available on Matchroom's streaming partner DAZN, as it was for Alvarez's win over Munguia in May.
Last year, the UFC took advantage of the holiday before Alvarez could secure a date and introduced UFC Night, a late-night fight card.
Since MGM properties represent all the major venues on the Las Vegas Strip, there was nowhere else for Alvarez to go. Instead, he fought two weeks later and defeated Jermell Charlo at the T-Mobile Arena.
This time, it's a different story: UFC is hosting the first-ever live sporting event at Sphere, a revolutionary, immersive arena owned by Madison Square Garden Company.
The UFC has a very different audience, so both events are likely to be very successful. And with Alvarez's legion of passionate fans from Mexico, he's also guaranteed to draw plenty of fans to his event, although it's expected to be a key storyline throughout the week in Las Vegas. And it will once again be billed as UFC Night.
“So, we're going there on Mexican Independence Day and I'm going to put on the greatest live event that anyone has ever seen, and it's going to be a huge love letter to all of combat and combat sports throughout the history of Mexico,” White said on “The Pat McAfee Show” in February.
No fights have been formally announced for UFC 306 at this time.
“I've already invested $17 million into this and we're not even close to September yet,” White said earlier this month on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “When I tell you I'm going to put on the biggest live sporting event in the history of combat sports, maybe in the sport, nobody else is going to come in and spend money.” [that much money].”
