Berlanga vs Rosado Clash Possible For Puerto Rico

Gabe Rosado is excited about a possible fight with Edgar Berlango, a former world super middleweight title challenger, next year in Puerto Rico.

New York native Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) and Rosado are both of Puerto Rican descent, but were born in the US. He is expected to fight on the Island next in what would be a card promoted by Matchroom Boxing on DAZN.

19-year-old pro Rosado (26-17-1, 15 KOs) hasn’t won a fight in four years since his upset third-round knockout victory over Bektemir Melikuzziv on June 19, 2021.

Berlanga suffered his first professional loss, losing to 168-pound unified champion Canelo Alvarez on September 14 in Las Vegas. It was pretty one-sided for the most part, but Berlanga, 27, made it competitive with his sheer size. He reportedly rehydrated to 193 lbs after weighing 167 3/4 lbs.

That’s a 25.25 lb weight gain after rehydration. Canelo dropped Berlanga in the third round, but then it looked like he let his foot off the gas instead of going for the knockout. Some people believe that Canelo was wearing Berlanga.

They felt Alvarez didn’t want to be criticized for knocking out the Brooklyn, New York native, who had already been mocked for picking him over more proven fighters like David Benavides and David Morrell.

The Scores

118-109
117-110
118-109

Fans would prefer Berlanga to fight a real contender rather than 38-year-old journeyman Rosado for his next fight, but it would be too risky to put him in a top-15 guy. Berlanga is already talking about a quick win and then a fight against Jaime Munguia for a rematch with Canelo.

It may take more than a win over Rosado and Munguia to get Berlanga a second fight against Alvarez, but you can’t blame him for wanting to try. Berlanga’s purse for that fight was $3 million, and he probably made extra money from the PPV. It has made a reported 650,000 purchases. Those are great numbers.

“It’s a dream fight for me just because I’ve never fought in Puerto Rico,” Gabe Rosado said MillCity Booking about him potentially fighting New York’s Edgar Berlanga next year in 2025 in Puerto Rico. “I live in Puerto Rico for half a year. I have a house there. So I’m always there.

“I’m telling you, that’s going to put another battery in my back.” You have legends like Cotto, Tito (Trinidad and Amanda Serrano there. It’s so good for the sport. Puerto Rican boxing is back on the map because you have so much great talent now.

“You’ve got Berlanga, and you’ve got the vet, Gabe Rosado. If you put us in PR, the island will love it. You have two Borizzos from the United States coming back to Puerto Rico,” Rosado said of him and Berlanga. “It would be history, it would be a doping event.” There’s no real difference between being in Puerto Rico and being in Philadelphia.”

Fans outside of the East Coast would prefer to see Berlanga fight someone a little younger than the 38-year-old Rosado. Rosado’s 17 losses make it difficult to take him and this fight seriously. This reinforces the argument that Berlanga’s former Top Rank promotion is just a fictitious business created to sell tickets in the New York area.

For fans outside of the New York area, it would be more interesting to see Berlanga go up against one of the following contenders:

– Osleis Iglesias
– Caleb Plant
– Christian Mbili
– Diego Pacheco
– Eric Bazignan
– Bruno Surače