The streak goes on.
Super middleweight prospect Edgar Berlanga was facing a fighter who had never been stopped, veteran Lanell Bellows, on the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Teofimo Lopez card Saturday in Las Vegas. His streak of first-round knockouts to start his career had to come to an end in this fight, right?
Nope.
Berlanga (15-0, 15 KOs) clipped Bellows with a left hook not even a minute into the fight and followed with a barrage of big shots that left Bellows cut and dazed, prompting referee Robert Hoyle to stop the fight only 1:19 into the scheduled eight-rounder.
“I looked into his eye and he didn’t want to be there, so I took him out,” Berlanga said.
The New Yorker doesn’t attack his opponents wildly. He took a measured approach from the opening bell against Bellows (20-6-3, 13 KOs), throwing his jab, finding his range.
Then he threw a shot with bad intentions. Then another. Then that left hook landed on the side of Bellows’ head, which weakening his legs and made him easy prey. Berlanga knew what he had to do. And he did it.
Berlanga is only 23. He’s just getting started, yet he already has a significant fan base. That’s what a string of first-round stoppages will do.