Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports, via Reuters
Super middleweight Edgar Berlanga will take on Steve Rolls in a 10-round main event on Saturday at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden.
He will be fighting in front of a hometown audience in New York. Berlanga has future title aspirations at 24 years old. Berlanga will put his WBO NABO super middleweight title on the line.
This fight will headline a card with several notable prospects in boxing. Berlanga will be fighting for the first time since October 2021 when he Marcelo Coceres via unanimous decision in Las Vegas. In that fight, he survived a knockdown and managed to win the remainder of the rounds against Coceres. He faced adversity and overcame it on a pay-per-view card.
For Berlanga’s opponent, Rolls, he won his last fight via ninth-round KO against Christopher Brooker on Dec. 17. Rolls, the Canadian, won his last two fights after he suffered a fourth round knockout against Gennadiy Golovkin in June 2019. That was the biggest fight of Rolls’ career and he fell short to Golovkin.
πππ. ππππ. πππ.@EdgarBerlangaJr will takeover NYC in a showdown against Steve Rolls π½#BerlangaRolls | MAR 19 | ESPN pic.twitter.com/gafyDmczwL
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) March 12, 2022
This fight will be a pivotal one for both boxers. For Berlanga, he wants to use Rolls as a stepping stone to be a top super middleweight contender within the next year. On the other hand, Rolls is trying to prove that he can compete for a world title at 37 years old.
The mantle could be passed in this fight as Berlanga will show that he can handle the step up in competition with a win. Rolls will need to use his age advantage to his favor against an opponent who is 13 years younger.
Final Prediction: Edgar Berlanga def. Steve Rolls via unanimous decisionΒ
Berlanga has tremendous power and he is ready to take the next step in his career. Before his last two wins, Berlanga had 16 consecutive first-round knockouts. As the competition stiffened, Berlanga showed that he was able to box for at least eight rounds. Rolls was only stopped once in his career and it will be hard for him to stop Rolls again. If Rolls has any chance, he will need to lead the exchanges and throw combinations. Berlanga will land powerful overhand rights and win most of the exchanges over 10 rounds.
