Distraction is Canelo-Berlanga Promotion’s Best Friend

Hey, did you hear that Edgar Berlanga has vowed to “smack the sh*t” out of a disrespectful Oscar De La Hoya?

When you’re looking at a fight where the outcome is pretty much known at the time of the contract signing, you better have some good side stories to sell during the build-up to the event.

The people selling Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas are doing their best to offer up plenty of “but, hey, look at this” distractions to shift the eye-focus away from a contest where the betting odds are overwhelmingly unsalable.

As of this writing, Berlanga is a +1000 underdog against the 3-belt unified super middleweight champ and future first ballot Hall of Famer. Most main stage fighters would get virtually curb stomped by fans and media for choosing a pay-per-view opponent so universally regarded as a no-hoper.

Canelo’s Charmed Life = Bad Boxing Product

But Alvarez has been leading a charmed boxing life since he’s established himself as one of the last remaining legitimate US-based draws. The demand is so great for his services these days that boxing companies will bend over backwards to accommodate him, even agreeing to excessively “friendly” matchmaking to keep themselves in Canelo’s good graces.

During his most recent run, the thought behind Canelo’s matchmaking has seemed to be, “how close can we get to making a fight look competitive, without it actually being competitive?”

After a stellar run in 2020-2021, uniting the super middleweight division, beating three of the top five 168-pounders and a mandatory contender in the span of just eleven months, things got a bit shady and a whole lot cynical.

A decisive loss to Dmitry Bivol in May of 2022, in a bid for the WBA light heavyweight title, gave way to a cautious and somewhat dull points win over Gennadiy Golovkin in a poorly-received part 3 to the Canelo-GGG rivalry that September. The following year saw the Mexican superstar half-ass dominate the pedestrian John Ryder and chase around a submissive champ from three divisions below him, Jermell Charlo, to take a shutout decision. In 2024 so far, Alvarez took on Jaime Munguia in a respectable challenge that was, still, most definitely NOT the David Benavidez challenge everyone wanted to see from him.

And now there’s Berlanga.

With the Berlanga fight, there’s not even the slightest hint of a pretense about this being anything other than a gimme.

Yeah, yeah…Mexico vs. Puerto Rico…Historical rivalry…Whatever.

It’s a nice try as a promotional tool, but Canelo-Berlanga will be a continuation of a rivalry like men’s boot vs. spider is a continuation of the rivalry between man and nature.

So, there HAVE to be some juicy, mega-distracting side stories to keep the fans focused outside of what’s likely to happen inside the ring.

And, ironically enough, bitter Canelo hater and former Canelo business associate Oscar De La Hoya has been a major provider of that much-needed distraction.

Oscar De La Hoya Unwittingly Helps Hated Canelo

The Golden Boy Promotions figurehead has been loudly (and frequently) critical of the September 14 Canelo fight, to the point where it’s actually helping the sleight of hand needed to sell this mismatch.

“So, we’re a week away from the boxing match that nobody asked for and the UFC event that everybody will be watching,” De La Hoya said in his most recent ‘Clap Back Thursday’ social media video feature. “Canelo is fighting [Edgar] Berlanga, another snoozefest! They’re trying to sell a PPV for 90 dollars and 500 dollars minimum in person? It’s just robbery at this point to pay for another lame Canelo fight that always goes the distance against a subpar opponent.”

“I’ll actually be attending the UFC event at the Sphere instead,” De LA Hoya continued. “So now, I love the sport of boxing more than anything and I would be watching boxing matches, anywhere and at any time, even if it’s a simple sparring session or two bums fighting in the street so the idea of attending a UFC, and support Dana White instead of Canelo, tells you everything you need to know.”

De La Hoya would then go on to tweet his prediction that Canelo-Berlanga wouldn’t even top 100K pay-per-view buys.

The “Clap Back” from Oscar would lead to a subsequent counter from Berlanga.

“Guys like Oscar De La Hoya out there trying to destroy my reputation, destroy Canelo’s reputation, trying to say that we’re not going to sell no tickets, that the PPV numbers — nobody’s going to buy, it’s not going to hit over 100K,” Berlanga blasted in a Matchroom Boxing video. “That’s b**ch sh*t, and if I see him I’ll smack the sh*t out of him.

“He’s just upset, he’s just upset that he’s already old. He’s got a guy like Canelo that’s a real Mexican, that’s been undisputed and all of this, I know where his hate comes from with him. And with me, he wanted to sign me. He flew from Vegas trying to come out from LA, trying to come down to sign me. And we signed with one of the best, Eddie Hearn.

“So, Oscar, f**k you.”

All of this is music to the ears of PBC/Amazon Prime/DAZN/Matchroom Boxing/Canelo Promotions (and anyone else involved in the event). The fight gets publicity without scrutiny while Berlanga gets a boost to his profile, and the whole event gets dragged into headlines by one of the few guaranteed headline makers in boxing, De La Hoya.

One could argue that De La Hoya’s energies would be better utilized in talking up his own fights and fighters, but Canelo-Berlanga event organizers will surely take this promotional assistance.

Anything to avoid talking about the actual fight.