After watching Edgar Berlanga stop Padraig McCrory in the sixth round on Saturday in a desultory performance in Orlando, Fla., one can only come to one conclusion: If Canelo Alvarez chooses this guy as his opponent for a Cinco de Mayo title defense on May 4, he's looking for an easy way out.
Berlanga is not remotely qualified to be fighting Alvarez for the undisputed super middleweight championship.
He's get drilled by not only Alvarez, but by interim WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez, WBA super middleweight champion David Morrell Jr., as well as by Jaime Munguia. All are vastly better fighters than Berlanga and have much better cases to get the big bout.
A slick editor could make a good highlight reel that would help a slick-talking promoter make a case for Berlanga. He's 22-0 with 17 knockouts, and a highlight package could be put together that would show him knocking guys into the middle of next week. On the surface, his record looks great, and he's ranked in the Top 10 by all four sanctioning bodies.
Berlanga, though, simply doesn't pass the eye test. He's largely fought a series of tomato cans, one after the other, and isn't a draw or a quality opponent.
Berlanga did next to nothing in the first half of the fight, after after three rounds, had landed a grand total of eight power punches, according to CompuBox. He landed zero power shots in the first, three in the second and five in the third.
He never really got untracked and didn't look at all like a contender in any event, not just a contender for a bout with Alvarez.
Alvarez hasn't had a tough opponent in a minute. Last year, he faced journeyman John Ryder and then former undisputed super welterweight champion Jermell Charlo, handing both of them easily.
I(t's time for him to take on a real challenge, and given that Benavidez has signed to fight for a light heavyweight belt, a match with undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford would be the way to go.
Berlanga is slow, has holes defensively and Alvarez would chop him up handily; it would be little more than a public execution.
There has to be someone better for him to fight.
If he does take that fight, he should put it on for free without charging the exorbitant pay-per-view prices he generally commands, because if that fight is on pay-per-view, it would just be robbing the fans blind.