The streak ended. The dominance continued.
Edgar Berlanga put Demond Nicholson down four times to win a wide unanimous decision in an eight-round super middleweight fight on the Emanuel Navarrete-Christopher Diaz card Saturday in Kissimmee, Fla., which ended Berlanga’s streak of first-round knockouts to start his career.
Berlanga (17-0, 16 KOs) put Nicholson (23-4-1, 20 KOs) down in the second, third, fifth and eighth rounds but couldn’t put the clever veteran away.
“I really wanted to get the first-round knockout but I enjoyed the experience,” Berlanga said.
Nicholson did a decent job of jabbing, moving and stopping to land punches here and there given his opponent’s power. However, he became more and more reticent to engage Berlanga because of the shots he was taking, prompting the Maryland fighter to move into survival mode.
That included an inordinate amount of holding, which made it difficult for Berlanga to unload at times.
Berlanga’s biggest punch might’ve come in the final seconds of the fight, when a short right hand put Nicholson on his behind and hurt him. The shot came too late, though. Nicholson was able to get up and hear the final bell.
The judges scored it 79-69, 79-69 and 79-68. Boxing Junkie had it 79-69 for Berlanga.
He was asked what grade he would give his performance.
“I felt like it was a C,” he said. “I know I could’ve done a lot better. Tehre was things that I should’ve did. But we got the job done.”
