Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, the biggest boxing star of his generation, returns to the ring once again on Saturday night. Alvarez will be defending his three super middleweight world championships against Edgar Berlanga in a pay-per-view main event.
Berlanga made a name for himself as a knockout artist. As a man of Puerto Rican descent, it comes with a built-in rivalry with the Mexico. The Mexico vs. Puerto Rico rivalry has deep roots in boxing and Alvarez has made that a selling point for why he made the fight rather than some others that boxing fans have been demanding.
There are also recognizable names up and down the card, including many past or current champions.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the biggest storylines as Alvarez vs. Berlanga approaches.
Can Berlanga crack Alvarez’s chin?
Berlanga garnered a lot of attention when he scored 16 straight first-round knockouts to start his professional career. That seemingly unstoppable power then quickly disappeared with a run of five consecutive decision victories. Berlanga scored his first stoppage since 2020 this past February with a sixth-round TKO of Padraig McCrory.
Logic suggests the only path to victory for Berlanga is to knock out Alvarez. He’s simply not as good of a boxer as the champion, nor does he have the big-stage experience against elite opposition. Berlanga does have power, though maybe not as much as his incredible career-starting run suggested at the time, and is undeniably the bigger man heading into the fight. That said, Alvarez has never been knocked down, let alone stopped, and he has been in with plenty of heavy-handed opponents. Berlanga says he’s ready but he has to be better than ever and do something no man has ever been able to do to the future Hall of Famer.
When will Father Time catch up to Canelo?
It feels like it’s the story every time Alvarez steps into the ring, but fighters have to get old at some point. Either you step away from boxing while still a dominant champion or you stick around too long and suddenly age shows up in the ring. At 34, Alvarez is still a young man by all normal measures. But a 34-year-old with 65 professional fights, most of which were at the championship level, has a lot of miles on his body.
There was a recent stretch of fights where Alvarez looked a bit slower, especially in his defensive reactions. But he quieted some of the chatter by dominating Jermell Charlo and then outgunning a game Jamie Munguia in his two most recent outings. As the odds suggest, this is Alvarez’s fight to lose. If Alvarez loses, it will be due to a combination of age and Berlanga’s power.
Will Alvarez finally fight Benavidez with a victory?
Alvarez has already cemented himself as a legend in the boxing ring, but if he never steps in the ring with David Benavidez, it will be a stain on his legacy. Benavidez twice held the WBC title at super middleweight, losing it once due to a failed drug test for cocaine and once because he missed weight. Those missteps are entirely on Benavidez and have played a significant part in his inability to get Alvarez in the ring. Still, Benavidez is clearly the top challenger for Alvarez’s throne and a fight between the two is the bout most boxing fans want to see.
Benavidez spent years as Alvarez’s mandatory challenger but Alvarez has repeatedly pushed away the idea while diminishing Benavidez as an opponent. This eventually drove Benavidez to move to light heavyweight where he won an uninspiring decision over Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the WBC interim belt. Benavidez has repeatedly said he’d come back to 168 pounds for a crack at Alvarez and if Alvarez continues his strategy of refusing to even consider a Benavidez fight unless he’s paid a quarter of a billion dollars, it will be something that is always tied to his legacy.
Storylines from the undercard
The undercard has several compelling fights and familiar names. Let’s take a quick look at what to know with some of the biggest of those fights.
- Erislandy Lara vs. Danny Garcia: This is the only other world title fight on the card, with Lara putting his WBA middleweight belt on the line. Garcia has only fought once since 2020, scoring a majority decision win over Jose Benavidez Jr. in July 2022. That doesn’t exactly scream title contender, but Garcia has more name value than most of the otherwise middling middleweight division. At 41 years old, Lara should be reaching the end of his run at the championship level, and may well have already if he wasn’t fighting at middleweight, but he is sitting as a -245 favorite.
- Caleb Plant vs. Trevor McCumby: Plant is a big favorite at -1800 and this is bounce-back matchmaking after Plant lost a competitive March 2023 fight to Benavidez. The real story is Plant trying to force a rematch with Alvarez, who defeated him by TKO in 2021. With a WBA interim title on the line against McCumby, a win would technically place Plant in the line of mandatory challengers for Alvarez. While demand for the rematch might not be high, if Alvarez won’t fight Benavidez, Plant is one of the bigger names available for Canelo.
- Rolando Romero vs. Manuel Jaimes: Another bit of bounce-back matchmaking, this time for Romero, who dropped the WBA junior welterweight title to Isaac Cruz in his most recent outing. Heading into the Cruz fight, Romero was viewed as arguably the most vulnerable world champion in boxing because of his somewhat lacking technical skills. That shines through when you look at the odds for the fight, which have Romero as just a -240 favorite in a spot where most “name” fighters would be well over -1000. A loss here would end Romero’s time as a marketable fighter who can use his personality to sell tickets.
- Stephen Fulton vs. Carlos Castro: Fulton is another recognizable name looking to get back in the win column. Ahead of his July 2023 bout with Naoya Inoue, Fulton held the WBC and WBO super bantamweight titles and was a name bounced around at the bottom of many pound-for-pound lists. Fulton, like almost everyone before him, was thrashed by Inoue, who quickly went on to unify all four titles at the weight. Fulton wants to get back into contention and he’s good enough to do so. It starts with a decent bout with Castro. Fulton has also expressed frustration at not making the main pay-per-view broadcast, which is a legitimate gripe considering he may be behind Alvarez as the second best fighter on the entire card.
