Edgar Berlanga brings power, charisma back to Las Vegas

Undefeated super middleweight Edgar Berlanga thought he was rich. His father, Edgar Sr., had offered him $100 per victory in the Ringside World Championships.

And $400 was an awful lot of money for a 9-year-old.

“It was in twenties. I had a little stack,” Berlanga said with a grin. “I bought a pair of Jordans. I was little, so my size was probably 80 bucks. I bought a little outfit. I thought I was the little man at 9 years old.”

He fights for a whole lot more than $100 these days.

Berlanga, now 24, is one of the top young fighters in boxing. He is back in Las Vegas this week on the undercard of the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder heavyweight title fight.

The Brooklyn, New York, native began his professional career with an astounding streak of 16 first-round knockouts and has his sights set on eventual super middleweight supremacy.

“I think I’m on the verge of becoming one of the biggest superstars in boxing,” Berlanga said. “I’m a champ already. … It just hasn’t caught up yet.”

Berlanga (17-0, 16 knockouts) carries himself with an unwavering sense of confidence. It’s an attitude he cultivated while growing up in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood.

His Puerto Rican heritage conjured in Berlanga a sense of reverance for the island’s iconic fighters, namely Felix Trinidad. And the elder Berlanga thought the sport of boxing could help harness some of his son’s youthful energy: “I knew if I took care of him the right way … he’s going to make it,” he said.

He was right.

Berlanga began boxing when he was 7, training every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He initially resisted. He said he’d cry on his way to the gym.

But “by the time I’m out of the gym, I’m the happiest kid,” he said. “I liked it, I just hated the process of going to the gym. I wanted to be outside. I wanted to be a kid at the park. … Just from there, kept climbing the ladder.”

Berlanga won his first 15 amateur fights, including the four at the Ringside World Championships — and added a bevy of other amateur honors, including a Golden Gloves junior national championship.

He said he discovered his prodigious power at the age 17 after watching somebody get knocked out while sparring.

“It just grew in me. I already knew I had it in me. I just didn’t know how to use it,” Berlanga said. “I’ve got bad intentions. My mind, when I put on those 10-ounce gloves, no headgear, fight night and the lights come on, I want to punch a hole through somebody. If I can punch a guy through his chest and make my fist go through his back, that’s what we’re doing.”

Berlanga used his power for the first time as a professional on April 29, 2016. He knocked out Jorge Pedroz in the first round that night, thereby beginning the streak. He won his first nine fights to catch Top Rank’s attention and signed a contract in 2019 with the Las Vegas-based promotional firm.

He finally went the distance in his last fight April 24, beating Demond Nicholson by unanimous decision.

Berlanga can start a new knockout streak Saturday and is eyeing a fight next year against one of the top 10 fighters in the 168-pound division. He’ll fight again in December at Madison Square Garden and could fight in Puerto Rico in March and in New York next summer during the same weekend as the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Boxing is a marathon — not a sprint, he says, and he trusts in his trajectory.

“We win Saturday, in December we step up a little bit more. In March a little more. Like that,” Berlanga said. “In 2023, I’m looking for the title.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.