Edgar Berlanga sees his KO dry spell as ‘motivation’ ahead of clash against Padraig McCrory

There are labels and monikers that are hard to carry and usually don’t age well in boxing. ‘KO artist’ is one of those.

For Edgar Berlanga, it was almost impossible to escape that label after the four years of pure demolition derby that was the first leg of his career, where he went 16-0 with an equal number of first-round knockouts, drawing calls for him to face the top fighters in the middleweight region as soon as possible.

Fast forward three years, and after a 5-0 streak with zero knockouts, Berlanga is still behind the eight ball in the elusive game of landing high profile bouts.

He thinks that the situation could change as soon as Saturday night.

“It is motivation for me. I don’t see it as pressure,” said Berlanga (21-0, 16 KOs) in a phone interview. “It is motivation for me to perform at my best. I have to look like a superstar, so I can put those guys on notice and put the whole boxing world on notice. I belong up there with those guys, at this time, this year.”

Being unable to score a stoppage win in three years (and sometimes not looking exactly as the sho-in title contender he was portrayed to be earlier in his career) may have affected the way people perceive Berlanga, who takes on Padraig McCrory at Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida on Saturday, February 24. And he certainly doesn’t feel that he should be beholden to the idea that a fighter is only as good as the number in his KO column.

“Not every fighter has that knockout power,” said Berlanga, 26, currently rated at No. 9 by The Ring at super middleweight. “When (Gervonta Davis) went the distance with Isaac Cruz, they all went like ‘oh, Gervonta Davis is a bum.’ That’s the only bad thing. If we don’t knock nobody out, then we are bums. At this time, it doesn’t affect me. I know I still got that power. I know I have that strength. I have everything. I just gotta put it together now, because now we’re at a different level. I just gotta win. It’s all about winning now. I have everything, I have charisma, I am young, I can punch, and I got Puerto Rico behind me. That alone right there is everything.”

As the son of Puerto Ricans transplanted into the rough New York inner city, Berlanga grew up idolizing some of Puerto Rico’s greatest fighters, and the hope of achieving a measure of that success weighs heavily in his mindset as a fighter.

“(Two-division champ Felix) Trinidad is my idol in boxing. I watched him and I watched his career blossom. Same with Miguel Cotto. It’s a blessing for me to be in the same position as them. It’s amazing. Having that Puerto Rican blood inside us is the icing on the cake. To be a boxer and a Puerto Rican, that’s the icing on the cake. That plays a big factor in boxing. Especially with me.”

Berlanga’s dream has several noticeable roadblocks ahead, and McCrory (18-0, 9 KOs) is just one of them. But after a grueling five-month training camp sparring with the likes of Najee Lopez and other up-and-coming prospects, plus the help of highly regarded strength and conditioning coach Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia, Berlanga feels it’s the right time to add another notch on that KO column.

“He’s gonna come to fight,” said Berlanga about McCrory, who said that he too has a puncher’s chance to upset Berlanga. “He’s undefeated. He calls himself ‘The Hammer’, so I think he’s gonna come and try to nail to me. But there are levels to this. This is my time, and I have bigger fish to fry. I am not overlooking him, I know that he’s coming to fight and my main focus is him. But I have to destroy him. I have to make him look like he didn’t belong to me in the ring. It’s different because he’s coming to my hometown. This is Orlando, baby. You come into the Little Puerto Rico area, and it’s gonna be different. I am excited.”

The size of the next fish in Berlanga’s frying pan may have shrunk recently in light of his uneven performances, which include a knockdown suffered at the hands of Argentina’s Marcelo Coceres in a fight that many people saw Berlanga lose back in Oct. 2019 but also a solid win that included two knockdowns scored against former Olympian Jason Quigley in his last outing. But he still sees a path to the Canelo Sweepstakes through a few other names that could eventually bring him the recognition he craves, if only they agreed to fight him.

“You got (Demetrius) Andrade, you got Caleb Plant, you even got Gabe Rosado, who’s been on social media talking a lot of crap wanting to fight me. Guys like that, we can make those fights happen this year,” said Berlanga, who also feels that his switch in managerial teams has benefited him in that regard.

“I think Eddie (Hearn) is a lot different than a lot of promoters,” said Berlanga, who was promoted by Top Rank in the earlier portion of his career, about his current boss and head of Matchroom Boxing. “He’s willing to let those big fights happen. I saw him on social media and then in person talking about trying to make the big fights happen. So I think I am at the right place at the right time. I am surrounded by everything that’s good for me, I am ready to get to the next level and make those fights happen.

“I’ll be one of the best 168-pound fighters in the world. I think that after this fight my name is going to be buzzing again, and people will be talking about me and Canelo in September or Jaime Munguia. I feel those fights are there to be made, and it’s time to go capture a belt.

“I am winning everything, I am winning fights, I am undefeated, and I got Puerto Rico behind me. That’s just a dream come true.”

And even though he acknowledges there are several differences between his career and that of his Puerto Rican boxing heroes, he does aim to get the one thing that they already have.

“They did it their way and I’ll do it my way,” said Berlanga. “(But) I want the younger generations to talk about me when I retire too.”

Diego M. Morilla has written for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.

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