By John N. Hansen
March 20, 2022
Source: Bad Left Hook
Photo Source: Photo by Mikey Williams, Top Rank Inc via Getty Images
The once hot prospect had something to prove tonight, but may have only given more fuel to his doubters Edgar Berlanga won a clean and clear decision tonight over Steve Rolls in the basement at Madison Square Garden. But he left the ring with an even cloudier and more questionable future than when the night began.
Fair or not, Berlanga (19-0, 16 KO)was facing some questions and doubters after two straight decision victories, the first against Demond Nicholson last April and the other against Marcelo Coceres in October, ended his 16 fight streak of first round knockouts. Berlanga found himself on the canvas in the ninth round of that Coceres fight, and on the surgical table after it to repair a badly torn biceps.
In what could have been a get-well fight tonight, things started exceptionally slowly. Berlanga didn’t do much, seldom pressing or initiating major exchanges with Rolls (21-2, 12 KO) despite Rolls looking skittish and spending most of the early rounds in some form of retreat. But, he did enough to win rounds, in that he did something.
The fight finally shifted out of neutral in the middle rounds. Rolls started throwing and moving in ways that Berlanga struggled to handle. Berlanga, who had difficulty generating offense against a shelled-up Rolls, had even less success landing worthwhile punches against an increasingly active and confident Rolls.
Berlanga finally adjusted to Rolls’s activity in the ninth round, landing a few power shots that slowed Rolls down enough to let Berlanga take the last two rounds and secure the victory. That’s how I had it in scoring the fight 97-93 for Berlanga, identical to two of the official scores, with a third judge seeing it 96-94.
A viewer who only saw Rolls flinching and moving in reverse through the first half may have thought Berlanga had a gun in his waistband. One who tuned in midway might have assumed Steve Rolls was the A-side of the fight.
Rolls never really seemed like a threat to stop Berlanga or win a decision, but he looked like he solved Berlanga and made his life difficult for much of the night. Not bad for someone arguably best known as the guy people mention when they want to criticize Gennadiy Golovkin’s activity and matchmaking since his last fight against Canelo Alvarez.
You can tell a lot about how things are going for the house fighter by the highlights made available on social media. Tonight, there were none posted by Top Rank or ESPN.
Andre Ward, Tim Bradley, and even Mark Kriegel all gave candid and valid criticism of Berlanga’s performance throughout the night. None of it was unfair, but the volume and variety of it was shocking, given how ESPN in particular usually discuss their headliners in the adoring tone of a mother describing her child’s graduation from medical school.
I don’t know what comes next for Berlanga. He put a big spotlight on himself with the knockout streak. All the eyeballs it brought him have seen three straight fights that hint at a lower and lower potential ceiling. He’s not a bad boxer, and he hasn’t been “exposed,” necessarily. But he’s a young guy who could really use another star performance to get his reputation back on track in whatever fight comes next.
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