Notebook: Berlanga aims for explosive return against Quigley
Franco badly misses weight, stripped of junior bantamweight belt; BetUS show; Overtime Boxing announces schedule and signees; Quick hits; Show and tell
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It’s time for Edgar Berlanga 2.0 as the brash and unbeaten super middleweight begins anew looking to recapture the knockout power that made him one of the hottest young fighters in boxing.
Berlanga has a new promoter in Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn after an amicable split from Top Rank and he has also has reunited with his original trainer, Mark Farrait, as he embarks on a new chapter of his career.
It starts with a 12-rounder against former middleweight title challenger Jason Quigley in the main event Saturday (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET) at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
“This weekend is a big step in Edgar‘s career getting back into the ring after a year layoff,” manager Keith Connolly said. “He’s back with a new promoter, Eddie Hearn, and he’s back in his home, Madison Square Garden. Edgar needs to win and look good doing it.”
Berlanga is coming off a one-year layoff, which was not only the product of his exit from Top Rank, signing as an in-demand free agent with Hearn and getting the fight with Quigley arranged. It is also because he was suspended for the second half of 2022.
In his final fight with Top Rank last June, Berlanga (20-0, 16 KOs), 26, was hit with a six-month suspension and $10,000 fine from the New York State Athletic Commission because tried to bite former title challenger Roamer Alexis Angulo, also at the Theater, and then joked about it during a post-fight interview.
Berlanga (20-0, 16 KOs) is well aware that some have soured on him due to the attempted bite and the power outage in his recent fights, because he began his career with 16 consecutive first-round KOs.
“I have a lot to prove to myself,” Berlanga said. “I have a chip on my shoulder. If the knockout comes that’s great, but I have to go in and handle my business, look sharp, be smart, do my thing.”
He said he is not unhappy to have gone the distance in the past four fights but he would like to get back to ending fights early and creating more buzz.
“I needed the rounds,” Berlanga said. “I am back with Mark Farrait, my coach that created ‘The Monster,’ and that’s amazing. We were separated for three years but now he’s back when the timing is important, and I think you’re going to see something explosive.”
When Berlanga signed with Hearn there was much speculation that it would lead within a fight or two to an opportunity to challenge undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, who had been working fight-by-fight with Hearn. But his signing a three-fight deal this week with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions probably ends Berlanga’s chances for the time being.
Berlanga, however, cannot concern himself with might be in the future. For him, it’s all about Quigley, getting back in the groove, continuing to win and, he hopes, doing so impressively.
“It’s a big night on Saturday,” Berlanga said. “It’s been a year layoff, we’re home with a new promoter, and I am ready to perform. I don’t put too much pressure on myself. Other people are trying to say Jason is an easy fight, but I know it’s a difficult fight.
“We’ve prepared well for that. He’s not going to stand in the middle of the ring. I have a lot of respect for him and his team, but we’re going to handle business.”
Quigley (20-2, 14 KOs), 31, of Ireland, who will be in his second fight since moving up to super middleweight, has been stopped in both of his loss — in the ninth round by onetime contender Tureano Johnson in 2019 and in the second round challenging then-WBO middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade in November 2021.
“I know I am the better man,” Quigley said. “Edgar is a great fighter. I’ve come here to win, and that’s going to make it a great fight. But I am the man. I’m here to progress my career and my life.
“I’ve been the underdog my whole career and even as an amateur. I have so much belief in myself, my team, the work we have done, I know what can come from winning this fight and that’s what excites me.”
Berlanga has briefly allowed himself to think ahead to what he wants if he wins. He didn’t mention Alvarez but said he’s interested in facing former longtime middleweight titleholder Gennadiy Golovkin, whose last fight was a decision loss to Alvarez at super middleweight, and WBC middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo, who is moving up to challenge Alvarez in the fall.
“I’m ready to go,” Berlanga said. “For me there are bigger fish out there, the GGGs, the Charlos — these are the guys I want to get in the ring with. I feel I am ready and seasoned to get in with them, but I must beat the shit out of Jason Quigley this weekend. That’s what it is”
Among other bouts on the card:
Heavyweight Adam Kownacki (20-3, 15 KOs), 34, the popular Polish big man from Brooklyn, will face Joe Cusumano (21-4, 19 KOs), 33, of Danville, Virginia, in the 10-round co-feature.
Kownacki once appeared on his way to a title shot before losing his past three fights, back-to-back upset knockouts to Robert Helenius and, most recently, a unanimous decision to Ali Eren Demirezen last July. Cusumano has won two in a row since a first-round knockout loss to Daniel Dubois in August 2021.
“It’s must win, but for me my two options are win averagely or win amazingly,” Kownacki said. “I want to look amazing, I’ve had a great camp with (new trainer) SugarHill (Steward), so we’re ready. I’m in great shape, I want to look brilliant, get the win and get another fight quickly.”
Junior welterweight up-and-comer Reshat Mati (13-0, 7 KOs), 24, of Staten Island, faces replacement opponent Dakota Linger (13-5-3, 9 KOs), 28, of Buckhannon, West Virginia, who is coming off an upset second-round knockout of Josue Vargas last June.
Franco overweight, stripped
San Antonio’s Joshua Franco was dramatically overweight for his WBA junior bantamweight title defense against four-division titlist Kazuto Ioka on Saturday in Tokyo for a rematch of their disputed majority draw.
Franco’s initial weight was 121.8 and after taking most of the allotted two hours to try to at least lose some of the weight, his final weight was 121.5 pounds, a whopping 6.5 over the 115-pound division limit, and he was stripped of the title before what was supposed to have been his fourth defense.
Ioka was 114.75 pounds and the sides agreed that the fight will still go ahead with Ioka able to claim the title if he wins. If Rodriguez wins the belt will remain vacant.
In many jurisdictions that wide of a weight spread would have been grounds for the local commission to cancel the fight but the Japanese Boxing Commission will allow it to take place.
“There was some issues the past few days that even up to a few hours ago made us believe the fight was off,” Robert Garcia, Franco’s trainer, tweeted after the weigh-in. “Josh has always been a professional and has never had a problem like this before. We had been in communication with the promoter for a few days on how to keep the fight on. This was all agreed to prior to the weigh-in. We have nothing but respect for Ioka, his team and his promoter.”
Franco (18-1-3, 8 KOs) and Ioka first met in Dec. 31, also in Tokyo, in a WBA/WBO unification fight and the bout was ruled a majority draw (114-114, 114-114 and 115-113 for Franco) in a fight many thought Franco, 27, who is the older brother of two-division titlist Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, clearly won.
Ioka (29-2-1, 15 KOs), 34, of Japan, who has also won belts at strawweight, junior flyweight and flyweight, vacated the WBO 115-pound title to take the rematch instead of making a less lucrative mandatory defense against countryman Junto Nakatani.
BetUS Boxing Show
If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on YouTube, please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed and handicapped two notable fights that take place on Saturday: Carlos Adames’ WBC interim middleweight title defense against Julian “J-Rock” Williams on Showtime and super middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga’s fight against Jason Quigley on DAZN. We also took viewer questions and comments and discussed the latest boxing news! Please check out the show here:
Overtime Boxing schedule
Overtime, which bills itself as the “builder of disruptive new sports leagues” — and is known for its basketball league featuring players ages 16-20 — aimed at younger sports fans and athletes, announced it will enter boxing in February. This week it unveiled more specific plans with its first batch of dates and a list of fighters it has signed.
It has a rights deal with DAZN, which will stream the first four OTX cards on consecutive Fridays (Aug. 4, 11, 18 and 25) beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET. Each card will take place at OTE Arena in Atlanta.
It has signed more than 30 fighters to compete in the summer series.
“I watch their videos on TikTok of basketball, Rob Dillingham and the twins. I was like, Overtime boxing? That would be fire for me,” middleweight Lorenzo “Truck” Simpson, one of the signees, said. “I’m young like those guys, exciting, and it’s an amazing opportunity.”
Overtime said in its announcement that it will also distribute content over its social media and that “fans will have access to year-round content of next gen boxers as they prepare and train, as well as out of the ring storytelling fueling fandom and building the boxer’s personal brands. Overtime’s core mission is about empowering young people to chase their dreams and OTX is about providing fighters the platform to do so.”
Among the fighters it has signed are Simpson, Elijah Pierce, Mike Plania, Vlad Hernandez, Sanny Duversonne, Haven Brady Jr., Gabriel Muratalla, Tyler Howard, David Navarro, Giovanni Marquez, Money Powell, Andreas Katzourakis and Christian Barreto.
“These next waves of fighters have remarkable stories of grit and perseverance. We feel privileged that we can help empower them as they work to reach their dreams and share their stories with Overtime’s millions of fans,” said OTX general manager Brandon Rhodes.
Quick hits
Weights from Minneapolis for Saturday’s PBC card on Showtime: Carlos Adames 159.6 pounds, Julian Williams 159.2 (for Adames’ WBC interim middleweight title); Erickson Lubin 156.6, Luis Arias 155.8; Fernando Martinez 114.6, Jade Bornea 115 (for Martinez’s IBF junior bantamweight title); Caleb Truax 174.8, Burley Brooks 174; Jerwin Ancajas 121.8, Wilner Soto 120.8; Mickel Spencer 141.4, Lyle McFarlane 141.4; Ray Robinson 127.6, Ryan Raglin 123.2; Robert Meriwether III 131.6, Ezra Rabin 131.6; Shawn McCalman 166.4, Bo Gibbs Jr. 166.8.
Weights from New York for Saturday’s Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN: Edgar Berlanga 167.8 pounds, Jason Quigley 167.6; Adam Kownacki 251.8, Joe Cusumano 238.2; Reshat Mati 140.6, Dakota Linger 140.8; Yankiel Rivera 111.4, Christian Robles 111.2; Khalil Coe 176.2, Buneet Bisla 173.2; Pablo Valdez 154, Demian Fernandez 154; Ofacio Falcon 134.8, Pedro Vicente 133.
Upstart outfit Disrupt Promotions announced two cards this week. The first will be headlined by a 12-round featherweight bout between Jazza Dickens (32-4, 12 KOs), of England, and Hector Andres Sosa (15-2, 8 KOs), of Argentina, with Muhammad Waseem (12-2, 8 KOs), of Pakistan, and Donnie Nietes (43-2-6, 23 KOs), a four-division titleholder from the Philippines, squaring off in the 12-round bantamweight co-feature on July 22 at Dubai Studio City’s Sound Stage 3 in Dubai. The second card will be topped by Dina Thorslund (19-0, 8 KOs), of Denmark, and Yuliahn Luna (25-3-1, 4 KOs), of Mexico, meeting to unify the WBO and WBC women’s bantamweight titles on Sept. 1 in Holstebro, Denmark.
Show and tell
After Arturo Gatti, my all-time favorite fighter, completed his legendary trilogy with Micky Ward he wanted the opportunity to win a second world title and his team delivered it for him in his next fight in which he outpointed Gianluca Branco to claim the vacant WBC junior welterweight title. After scoring easy knockouts in defenses against former titleholders Leonard Dorin and James Leija, Gatti took a career-high payday of $3.5 million for a mandatory defense (and his first pay-per-view main event) against Floyd Mayweather, who had vacated his lightweight title and was going into his third fight at 140 pounds. To many, it was a terrible mismatch and an unwinnable fight for Gatti. As much as I hated to say it I didn’t give him a chance to beat Mayweather, who had the kind of speed, skills and precision punching that I thought would be a disaster for Gatti. But the fight was made and it was also the first pay-per-view main event for Mayweather, who would go on to become the biggest PPV attraction in history.
I was ringside as Mayweather met fellow future Hall of Famer Gatti on his turf at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where the sold-out pro-Gatti crowd of 12,675 watched in horror as Mayweather delivered a one-sided annihilation. He dropped Gatti in the first round, battered him at will and had easily won every round on all three scorecards until Buddy McGirt, Gatti’s trainer, mercifully stopped the fight with Gatti on his stool after the sixth round. Mayweather won a world title in his third division en route to winning titles in five divisions overall. The fight sold 340,000 pay-per-views, a number Mayweather would eventually dwarf time and again over the next decade-plus in his record-shattering career. Gatti would fight just three more times, going 1-2. Gatti-Mayweather took place on June 25, 2005 — 18 years ago on Sunday. Here is an extraordinarily rare cardboard site poster in my collection that was on display at Bally’s Atlantic City, one of the host hotels, during fight week.
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Photos: Berlanga-Quigley: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing; Franco: Naoki Fukuda; Adames-Williams: Esther Lin/Showtime
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I agree dan gatti is one of my all time favourite fighters