Edgar Berlanga is fortunate that he’s still undefeated.
The slugger from Brooklyn gave a flat performance against Steve Rolls but emerged with a questionable unanimous-decision victory in a 10-round super middleweight bout Saturday night at Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City.
Berlanga (19-0, 16 KOs) stalked his veteran opponent from beginning to end but had trouble cutting off the ring, didn’t throw a lot of punches and landed no memorable shots the entire fight.
Rolls (21-2, 12 KOs) didn’t do a hell of a lot, either, but he made almost every round competitive with his stick-and-move tactics, which frustrated Berlanga. That included a number of eye-catching straight rights that Berlanga couldn’t see coming.
The 37-year-old Canadian probably was at his best in the middle rounds, when he picked up his pace and clearly outworked his plodding foe.
Berlanga fought with some urgency down the stretch. However, even then he couldn’t take complete charge of the fight.
The judges obviously thought Berlanga did enough to have his hand raised. The final scores were 97-93, 97-93 and 96-94, all his favor. Boxing Junkie scored it 96-94 (six rounds to four) for Rolls, who gave arguably the best performance of his career.
Berlanga, 24, has now gone the distance in his last three fights after winning each of his first 16 by first-round knockout, which made him a sensation.
And this was his second consecutive shaky performance. He survived a ninth-round knockdown to outpoint Marcelo Esteban Coceres last October, although he reportedly tore a biceps muscle early in the fight.
Is he not as good as he appeared to be during his knockout streak? Is he a power puncher and little more? Or is winning all that matters for a young fighter who is still developing?
Fans undoubtedly are asking these type of questions after a less-than-inspiring performance in the Big Apple.
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