Gabe Rosado is excited about a possible fight against Edgar Berlanga, a former super middleweight world title challenger, next year in Puerto Rico.
New York native Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) and Rosado are both of Puerto Rican descent, but were born in the US. He is expected to fight on the Island next in what would be a card promoted by Matchroom Boxing on DAZN.
The 19-year-old professional Rosado (26-17-1, 15 KOs) has not won a fight in four years since his upset third-round knockout victory over Bektemir Melikuziev on June 19, 2021.
Berlanga suffered his first professional loss, losing to 168lb unified champion Canelo Alvarez on September 14th in Las Vegas. It was pretty one-sided for the most part, but Berlanga, 27, made it competitive with his sheer size. Apparently he rehydrated 193 lbs after weighing in at 167 3/4 lbs.
That’s a 25.25 lb gain after rehydration. Canelo dropped Berlanga in the third round, but then he appeared to let his foot off the gas instead of going for the knockout. Some people believe that Canelo was wearing Berlanga.
They felt that Alvarez didn’t want to be criticized for knocking out the Brooklyn, New York native because he was already being mocked for picking him over more proven fighters like David Benavidez and David Morrell.
The results
118-109 (view, other).
117-110 (view, professional).
118-109 (view, other).
Fans would rather have Berlanga fight an actual opponent than 38-year-old assistant Rosado for his next fight, but it would be too risky to put him with a top 15 guy. Berlanga is already talking about a quick win and fighting Jaime Munguia for a rematch with Canelo.
It may take more than wins over Rosado and Munguia for Berlanga to get a second fight against Alvarez, but you can’t blame him for wanting to at least try. Berlanga’s purse for that fight was $3 million, and he probably made extra from the PPV. It generated a reported 650,000 purchases. Those are excellent numbers.
“This is a dream fight for me just because I’ve never fought in Puerto Rico,” Gabe Rosado told MillCity boxing about his potential fight with New York’s Edgar Berlango in 2025 in Puerto Rico. “I live in Puerto Rico for half a year. I have a house outside. So I’m always there.
“I’m telling you, that’ll put another battery in my back.” You have legends like Cotto, Tito [Trinidad, and Amanda Serrano out there. It’s so good for the sport. Puerto Rican boxing is getting back on the map, because you’ve got so much great talent now.
“You got Berlanga, and you got the vet, Gabe Rosado. To put us in PR, the island will love it. You’ve got two Boricuas from the States coming back to Puerto Rico,” said Rosado about him and Berlanga. “It would be history, It would be a dope event. There’s no real difference from being in Puerto Rico and being in Philly.”
Fans outside of the East Coast would prefer to see Berlanga fight someone a little younger than the 38-year-old Rosado next. Rosado’s 17 defeats make it difficult to take him and this fight seriously. This strengthens the argument that the former Top Rank-promoted Berlanga is just a manufactured hype job created to sell tickets in the New York area.
It would be more interesting for fans outside of the New York area if Berlanga fought one of these contenders next:
– Osleys Iglesias
– Caleb Plant
– Christian Mbilli
– Diego Pacheco
– Erik Bazinyan
– Bruno Surace
