Canelo Alvarez officially announced his next fight on social media on Thursday. Alvarez will defend his super middleweight titles versus Edgar Berlanga on Sept. 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Alvarez (61–2–2, 39 KOs) choosing Berlanga as his opponent comes with some controversy. David Benavidez is the WBC’s mandatory challenger and has been pursuing a title shot with Alvarez for two years.
However, Alvarez bypassed Benavidez and WBA mandatory challenger David Morrell in favor of Jaime Munguia earlier this year and now Berlanga (22–0, 17 KOs).
Alvarez, 34, defeated Munguia by unanimous decision after knocking him down in the fourth round on May 4. He has 39 knockouts in his career, but hasn’t won via knockout since 2021.
If Berlanga wasn’t Alvarez’s next opponent, he still reportedly wouldn’t have fought Benavidez. Alvarez instead would’ve fought Chris Eubank Jr., who would’ve moved up from middleweight, according to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger.
Additionally, Alvarez’s bout with Berlanga is scheduled for the same date as UFC 306, which will be held at the Las Vegas Sphere. But Alvarez is insistent on keeping the date of Sept. 14 to commemorate Mexican Independence weekend, which he made a point of mentioning in his social media announcement.
Berlanga, 27, began his professional boxing career in impressive fashion, winning his first 16 fights with first-round knockouts. His next five bouts went the full 10 rounds, but he knocked out Padraig McCrory in the sixth round in his last fight.
Alvarez’s fight with Munguia generated a bit over 500,000 pay-per-view buys, according to Boxing Scene. The poor showing demonstrated that fans are frustrated with Alvarez choice of opponent. However, Alvarez’s camp believes that his fans will support him — both at T-Mobile Arena and on pay-per-view — on the weekend of Mexican Independence Day. Berlanga, to his credit, is viewed by some as a better opponent than Munguia and is ranked No. 1 at 168 pounds by the WBA.