American Super Middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga continued with his undefeated winning run by recording his 21st victory with a win by unanimous decision over Irish contender Jason Quigley. The fight, held at the MSG Theater in New York on June 24th, went the full distance of 12 rounds with judges’ scorecards of 116-108 (twice) and 118-107 in favor of Berlanga.
Edgar Berlanga (21-0, 15 KO’s) and Jason Quigley (20-3, 14 KO’s) were almost evenly-matched as they completed the total of 12 rounds, but it was Berlanga who clearly took the lead with his four knockdowns. The 3rd and 5th round saw Berlanga take control of the match when there were still doubts on who was leading, but Quigley still put up a great fight even with his knockdowns.
It was clear that Edgar Berlanga’s power kept Jason Quigley from diving in too close after the 5th round, but the Irishman showed stunning resilience when he showed capable of taking hard shots even after being dropped twice. Edgar Berlanga seemed to be frustrated at certain points after the 5th for not being able to finish off Quigley who impressively kept Berlanga off him with smart counters and footwork and even stunned the American in the 7th round with an unsuspecting yet powerful left.
Following the 5th, Edgar Berlanga sought to close off the ring as Jason Quigley was forced onto the backfoot but failed to establish a knockout or stoppage over the Irishman. The 12th round, however, saw things turn out almost completely wrong for Quigley who had done an admirable job by continuing on to the last round despite the damage he had taken.
In the last round, Edgar Berlanga dropped Quigley twice again but the Irish fighter’s refusal to back down saw him last until the closing bell. The match, that had been quite evenly-matched in the beginning, proved to be one of Berlanga’s best performances out of all his fights that went to decision, and that’s made even more apparent when noting that this fight was the American’s first 12 rounds.
Having been knocked out/stopped twice before, Jason Quigley showed improvement in not only his toughness, but his defense and also gave Edgar Berlanga slight scares with some hard landed punches. Berlanga retained his WBO NABO Super Middleweight title as a result of his win over Quigley.
The event also featured Polish Heavyweight contender Adam Kownacki (20-4, 15 KO’s) co-main eventing along with American fighter Joe Cusumano (22-4, 20 KO’s). Kownacki attempted to break the three-match losing streak he had been on but confounded viewers and bystanders by again losing. After suffering a knockdown in the 1st, Kownacki performed decently well afterwards but Cusumano kept on pressuring Kownacki until he was stopped in the 8th round, thus marking Kownacki’s fourth loss in a row.
