Edgar Berlanga posts 15th straight first-round KO to open his career
When it comes to boxing records, it doesn’t get much more dominant than Edgar Berlanga right now.
The Puerto Rican 23-year-old scored a first-round TKO against Lanell Bellows to open Saturday’s Top Rank card. It was Berlanga’s 15th straight first-round knockout to improve his career record to 15-0. None of that is a typo.
Saturday’s bout ended with a sustained assault on Bellows, prompting the ref to call the fight.
HE DID IT AGAIN 😮@EdgarBerlangaJr makes it 15 straight first round knockouts to start his career. #LomaLopez pic.twitter.com/n4Uz2OjiEB
— ESPN Ringside (@ESPNRingside) October 18, 2020
Berlanga provided his own post-fight analysis, announcing “I’m a f---ing monster” from the corner of the ring:
— Viral Sports (@NotScTop10plays) October 18, 2020
Of course, the flip side of literally never seeing the second round of a professional boxing match is that Berlanga is still lacking experience in lengthy fights as he tries to graduate from prospect to boxing’s upper levels. Mike Tyson said as much after the match, saying he wants to see Berlanga do this kind of stuff in the 10th round too.
Berlanga looked sensational tonight but he will be at his best when he can knock a guy out like that in the 10th round like he did in the 1st round #LomavsLopez
— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) October 18, 2020
In theory, Bellows was a decent bet to provide that challenge having gone the distance in five of his previous seven fights (with a record of 2-3-2), but then Berlanga plowed through him too.
As Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole notes, Berlanga is aware of this, but wasn’t thinking too much about it on Saturday.
Berlanga has talked a lot about going rounds, but he admitted tonight he wanted he first-round KO. Said he got a bit overanxious and had to do push-ups. But he said Bellows was intimidated. “He looked scared.”
— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) October 18, 2020
More from Yahoo Sports: