By Norm Frauenheim-
It’s a powerful introduction. Edgar Berlanga’s intro is memorable because of power for which there’s been no time for a counter.
Hello-goodbye. That’s about how long it has taken in Berlanga’s 16 fights, all of which have ended within the first round.
Berlanga is also generating a predictable buzz, a welcome one in a business drifting toward a carnival featuring You Tube wannabes and aging legends trying to squeeze a few more dollars out of their fading name-recognition.
Jake Paul, Logan Paul, Peter, Paul and Mary. Who cares? Plenty do, it turns out. You-Tuber Jake Paul’s one-round skit in a win over Ben Askren last Saturday reportedly drew a pay-per-view audience estimated between 1.2 and 1.6 million. Canelo Alvarez must be jealous.
Yes, there’s money in virtual power, an irresistible illusion for gamers and an opportunity for anyone seeking a quick buck.
But Berlanga’s power is real, sustainable if he can prove that there’s something more. The task continues this Saturday (ESPN, 10 pm ET/7 pm PT) against Demond Nicholson (23-3-1, 20 KOs) in a super-middleweight fight on a card featured by Emanuel Navarrete’s featherweight title defense against Christopher Diaz in Kissimmee, Fla.
Berlanga-Nicholson is scheduled for eight rounds, not that seven of them – second through the eighth – will matter. Berlanga’s professional apprenticeship suggests they will not. Therein, however, is the dilemma for a 23-year-old Puerto Rican who grew up in Brooklyn.
He goes into the bout with hype surrounding the first-round KO streak. Can he make it 17 straight? But his development hinges on what he can do beyond the first. He’s a fighter hoping for a career that goes the distance. At some point, he’s got to prove that he can with skills not yet seen. Until he does, he remains a prospect.
Berlanga knows what awaits him. He’s heard the questions at the heart of the dilemma.
“Everybody’s always like, ‘Oh, how he’s gonna do when he goes to the second?’ ‘’ he said Tuesday during a zoom session with the media. “At the end of the day, listen man, I’ve been boxing for 16 years.
“You know, I got all the experience in the world. I’ve been all over the world. I’ve sparred and I’ve got the most experience I could as an amateur, and even just sparring and everything, you know. So, for me to go into the second round, I know everybody out there will make it seem bigger than what it is.’’
From this corner, going into the second round would represent a second step in his promising career. A graduation, of sorts. The power is proven. But feared power can be fickle.
To wit: Deontay Wilder. No fighter in today’s generation was more celebrated or feared for his power than Wilder, whose 32 stoppages include 20 in the first round. Wilder grew certain that the power in his right hand would always prevail.
There were doubts, however, skepticism about whether he had a jab, footwork or any of the other skills he’d eventually need. Tyson Fury proved he did not in a seventh-round stoppage of a heavyweight rematch in February 2020.
Wilder went on to blame the loss on armor in a costume he wore into the ring, on a spiked water bottle and who-knows-what-all. What he didn’t blame was the one-dimensional belief in his power.
It proved to be more feint than faith.
A powerful lesson.
