By Tom Donelson / Author, Member Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA)

Edgar Berlanga put his undefeated record against veteran Alexis Angulo who has already fought for the Super Middleweight title.  During Puerto Rico weekend, Edgar Berlanga was excited to be fighting at the Madison Square Garden like many other great Puerto Rican fighters like Migue. Cotto.

Berlanga scored 16 first round knock out in his first 16 fights.  Now he has been forced to go distance his last four fights and this fight should some weakness and concern on whether he can become the next great Puerto Rican fighter.

This fight showed his boxing skills as he was able to control Angulo from the outside almost every round, but he didn’t show the power that allowed him to knockout 16 straight fighters.  He even bit Angulo because he felt Angulo was using his elbow in close. 

I had the fight 99-91 and the judges agreed on similar margins.  The scorecard read 100-90, 99-91, and 98-92, so there wasn’t really any question who won.  He landed an average of 3 more punches per round and threw 7 more punches per round.  His connect was 36% and his opponent only connected on 29%.  So statistically he won the fight and the stats should us the winner.

Punch Stats

PUNCHES	BERLANGA	ANGULO
Total landed	108	79
Total thrown	423	354
Percent	26%	22%
Jabs landed	50	12
Jabs thrown	261	123
Percent	19%	10%
Power landed	58	67
Power thrown	162	231
Percent	36%	29%

His jab allowed him to control the real estate and set up combinations, but never once did he have Angulo in trouble.  In a division still with Alvarez as the top dog and who has the title, there are others out there like Charlo who is thinking of moving up to Super Middleweight plus David Benavidez, Caleb Plant and others.  Right now I don’t see the Berlanga defeating any of these.