Mexican undisputed 168 lbs champion Canelo Alvarez has found his opponent for September’s Mexican Independence Day weekend: Puerto Rican contender Edgar Berlanga. Both the date and venue have been confirmed, with the fight set to headline a PBC pay-per-view (PPV) card on September 14th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Like Alvarez’s previous fight against Munguia, the fight will be available on Amazon Prime as well as DAZN, also via PPV.
The news comes as no surprise given the match had been rumored to take place over the past two months. While Canelo Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KO’s) had been ordered by the IBF to face Cuban mandatory William Scull (22-0, 9 KO’s), the announcement of him facing Edgar Berlanga (22-0, 17 KO’s) might result in the IBF stripping Alvarez according to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger.
In that scenario, Alvarez would be defending only three of his world titles [WBA, WBC, and WBO] against Berlanga, while the vacant IBF title will be contested by No. 1 IBF super middleweight (168 lbs) contender William Scull and No. 2 Russian contender Vladimir Shishkin (16-0, 10 KO’s), according to ESPN‘s sources.
However, with the IBF having been grossly inconsistent in enforcing their own rules, there is no actual guarantee Alvarez will be stripped of his IBF super middleweight (168 lbs) title. While ESPN did state that Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KO’s) was stripped of his IBF heavyweight (200+ lbs) title, the IBF‘s own press release disputes this, suggesting the sanctioning body may rescind the purported upcoming decision to strip Alvarez if it suits them.
Edgar Berlanga will be involved in his first-ever world title bout, which will see him either become the unified or undisputed champion if he comes out on top against Canelo Alvarez. As of July 26th, Berlanga is ranked No. 4 with both the WBC and IBF, while he also occupies the No. 1 position in the WBA‘s 168 lbs rankings.
Berlanga is also acknowledged as the WBA mandatory contender of the super middleweight division but [the Alvarez-Berlanga fight] will not be considered a mandated bout given the sanctioning body has not actually ordered Alvarez to face Berlanga.
The Alvarez-Berlanga card will also see be co-main evented by the long-overdue match between Cuban-American WBA middleweight (160 lbs) champion Erislandy Lara (30-3-3, 18 KO’s) and former world champion Danny Garcia (37-3, 21 KO’s).
The upcoming weeks will shed light on whether Alvarez will actually be stripped of his IBF belt.
