Boxing analyst Shawn Porter is dismissing Edgar Berlanga as a “one-note fighter” heading into his WBC super middleweight title eliminator against Hamzah Sheeraz on July 12th on DAZN PPV. Porter is picking the underdog Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs) to pull off the upset against the favorite Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs) in their 12-round headliner at the Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Berlanga’s Style: Porter’s View
Porter sees Berlanga as a limited fighter, and he thinks Sheeraz will have too much ability for him to deal with in this fight. Shawn appears to have formed his view of Edgar from his loss to Canelo Alvarez in 2024, in which he changed his usual fighting style and chose to box.
He may not have seen Berlanga’s next fight when he returned to his brawling roots and annihilated Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz in a first-round knockout last March. That was Berlanga fighting the way he always has, and he looked like pure 24k gold.
A lot is riding on the July 12th fight for Berlanga and Hamzah. The winner will be in a position to potentially fight Canelo next February. Although Turki Alalshikh only mentioned Sheeraz and the Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn 2 winner as being in the running in the Canelo sweepstakes, Berlanga could put himself in the slot with a highlight reel knockout of Sheeraz.
“He’s a very one-note fighter. He looks for the perfect punch. If that perfect punch isn’t there, he doesn’t do a lot to set up anything else,” said Shawn Porter to the Ring Magazine channel. “Sheeraz is a really good boxer.”
What Porter is trying to say is that Berlanga loads up on his shots, looking for a knockout with every punch. With his power, is the logical thing to do, because we saw in his fight against Canelo Alvarez that he’s less effective when he boxes.
Berlanga’s Brawling Return Ignored
In that fight, Berlanga steered away from slugging and fell hopelessly behind. When he finally reverted to his aggressive, seek-and-destroy style in the 12th, he bombarded Canelo with shots.
What fans saw is that if Edgar had fought that way the entire fight, he would have either knocked out Canelo or won a clear decision. The Mexican could not match Belanga’s power and punch output in the 12th, and it would have been that way if he’d started earlier.
“He showed himself well against [Carlos] Adames. So, I got Sheeraz winning that one. I think Sheeraz is going to get it done. I do have respect for Berlanga now that I didn’t have before,” said Porter.
Porter’s Adames Analysis Questioned
It sounds like Porter didn’t watch Sheeraz’s fight against WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames last February. Hamzah did NOT show “himself well” in that fight. On the contrary, he was poor throughout, being out-punched the entire fight by Adames.
The judges scored it a 12-round draw, but the boxing world saw it as a clear win for Adames. I watched the fight and had Adames winning 11-1. You can argue that Adames should have won 12-0, as there were no rounds that Sheeraz appeared to win.
Last Updated on 07/02/2025
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