Canelo Alvarez Dominates But Doesn’t Crush Overmatched Berlanga

When you walk into a bout as a -1800 betting favorite, there’s good reason to believe that you’re probably going to win that fight easily.

That was very much the case Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (62-2-2, 39) won a one-sided decision over Edgar Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) to defend his status as consensus super middleweight champ in the headliner of a PBC on Prime pay-per-view event.

Despite efforts to talk up the bravery and resolve of the 27-year-old challenger, the post-fight truth of the matter turned out to be the same pre-fight truth most experts and even semi-informed observers believed– this was a mismatch.

Although the 34-year-old Alvarez lost a small handful of rounds on the combined official scorecards (and one round on this writer’s unofficial scorecard), Berlanga never really did much of anything. He never got the best of the Mexican superstar for more than just a few seconds at a time, in, maybe, two or three rounds. And that’s being very generous.

Alvarez was in control for every moment he chose to be in control, dropping the Brooklynite of Puerto Rican descent with a big left hand in the third round and just being all-around way better the rest of the way.

There were some sloppy, bad-spirited exchanges of fouls at various points in the bout– A Canelo punch to the back/Berlanga low blow, an exchange of hip punches, and a lead-in with the head from Berlanga, followed by a punch from Canelo on the break– but those were really the only “war is ugly” moments in the contest.

What saved Berlanga from the crushing defeat predicted for him was probably a combination of him being physically massive for the bout (reportedly upwards of 190 lbs.) and Canelo opting to not invest too much energy or take too much risk in closing out a fight where he was in complete control.

After twelve rounds of one-sidedness, the judges scorecards were slightly more generous than they should’ve been, with scores of 117-110, 118-109. and 118-109.

Alvarez was all smiles after the bout, talking up Mexican Independence Day and the Mexicans in attendance. Not pressed by PBC’s Jim Gray, Alvarez offered no ideas for his future plans, other than his desire to spend time with his family.

On the other hand, a humbled Berlanga talked up his respect for his “idol” Canelo and the love he has for the Mexican and Puerto Rican fans watching.

On the Undercard:

– Erislandy Lara defended his WBA middleweight title against former welterweight and junior welterweight champ Danny Garcia in a dreadfully dull affair between wildly inactive fighter that was drawing boos from the very first round. The 36-year-old Garcia, who landed just 33 punches over nine full rounds, offered up nothing in this bout and lost every round before being dropped with a poke of a shot at the end of the ninth. Garcia’s corner, including father/trainer Angel Garcia, would wave off the bout between rounds nine and ten. The 41-year-old Lara, who didn’t do much more, himself, officially registered his fifth stoppage victory in his last six bouts.

– Caleb Plant struggled through the early rounds of his bout with Trevor McCumby (and was put down with a punch to the arm in the fourth), having some issues with the one-time top prospect’s strength and one-punch power, before settling in and outworking the game Arizona resident. By the last couple rounds, Plant, the former IBF super middleweight champ, was clearly in command, pounding McCumby to the head and body. The end finally came in the closing moments of the ninth round, when Plant landed some major shots against a McCumby who was backed against the ropes, offering no resistance. With the TKO victory, Plant wins the vacant interim WBC super middleweight title.

– Rolando “Rolly” Romero mugged and thumped and made a general mess en route to a one-sided 10-round unanimous decision win over a completely ineffectual Manuel Jaimes by three scores of 99-91.