Brooklyn-born Edgar Berlanga is a highly confident fighter. The Puerto Rican pugilist boasts a 23-1 record (18 KOs) and knocked out his first 16 opponents. In an interview with the AmNews last week, he was adamant that his opponent this Saturday night at Louis Armstrong Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs), would not be difficult.
“I’m going to wipe this dude off the floor,” the 28-year-old Berlanga said. “I’m going to show him, and I’m going to show everybody, the whole world, that it is easy work.”
Berlanga said his unwavering self-belief comes from his hard work and the experience he gained from the only loss of his career, in September 2024, against Canelo Alvarez.
“I have already been at the highest level in the sport so (Sheeraz) is just in my way to become a great in the sport of boxing.”
Throughout his career, Sheeraz, 26, who was born and raised in Berkshire, England, has demonstrated knockout power. However, he is moving up from middleweight to super-middleweight and fighting for the first time at 168 lbs. It will be perhaps the toughest battle of the rangy 6-3 Sheeraz’s professional career.
The co-main event for the card will see WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) defend his title against William Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs). The local product from Newark has his sights set on what would be a major match up with WBA lightweight champ Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
Tomorrow, during an unprecedented boxing weekend in New York City that features two high-profile boxing cards, international boxing star and undisputed super lightweight champion Katie Taylor (24-1, 6 KOs) will clash for the third time against Brooklyn’s unified featherweight champion Amanda Serrano (47-3-1, 31 KOs) on Friday at Madison Square Garden in an all-women’s fight card to be broadcast worldwide on Netflix.
Taylor, 39, from Ireland, beat the 36-year-old Puerto Rico-born and New York City-raised Serrano for a second time last November by a 10-round unanimous decision as the co-main event of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight. The Irishwoman bested Serrano in their first fight by a controversial 10-round split decision in April 2022 in what was the first fight between women to ever headline the Garden.