04/23/2021 12:04 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 04/24/2021 7:54 AM
The Spanish César Núñez registers three defeats in his professional career. All were by knockout. However, one of them allows him to boast in front of a group of colleagues: he
was the man who spent the longest time in combat against Edgar Berlanga
. It was just 165 seconds on December 14, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York. No one was that close to hearing the final bell of the first round. Both he and the other 15 fighters who stood face to face in a ring with the Puerto Rican
capitulated in the opening round
. This Saturday, the Puerto Rican will try to add a link to his chain of supersonic definitions.
The one who will try to put an end to that mark will be
Demond Nicholson
, who will face Berlanga in a duel framed in the super middle division and agreed to eight laps that will serve as the semi-fund of the fight in which the Mexican Emanuel
Vaquero
Navarrete will expose his featherweight world title of the World Boxing Organization against Puerto Rican Chistopher
Pitufo
Díaz at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee (Florida).
The evening can be seen in Argentina through Space from 11pm.
“I train to do 12 rounds.
I have to stay focused and follow the fight plan.
I don't know if it will happen in the first round, in the second or in the third, although I know that it will happen, "said the 23-year-old, perhaps trying to lower expectations a bit regarding another early knockout that brings him closer to
a record that still remains. is far away
.
The Spanish César Núñez stretched his fight with Edgar Berlanga more than anyone: he endured 165 seconds.
For the moment, the best streak of consecutive definitions in the opening round is held by the Yemeni Ali Raymi, who linked 21 wins between 2011 and 2014, in bouts carried out entirely in his country. Further back are the American Tyrone Brunson (19) and the Venezuelan Edwin Valero (18). Of them, only Valero, who committed suicide in 2010, became world champion: he held the super featherweight titles of the World Boxing Association and lightweight of the World Boxing Council (he was monarch at the time of his death).
These days, too many illusions rest on Berlanga's shoulders.
The Puerto Rican community of New York (where he resides) sees in him the man who will take over from the great fighters of the island such as Wilfredo Gómez, Félix Trinidad, Wilfred Benítez or Miguel Cotto.
Even promoter Bob Arum predicts a huge future for him.
"My instinct tells me that he is going to be a superstar," he said.
However, many exams still need to be taken to rub shoulders with the greats in a category dominated by Mexican Saúl Álvarez, 168-pound champion recognized by the WBA and the WBC, and in which the British Billy Joe Saunders also reigns. (WBO),
Canelo's
next rival
on May 8 in Arlington, and the American Caleb Plant (IBF).
Lanell Bellows was knocked out by Edgar Berlanga in 79 seconds of action.
"Sometimes I say to Keith (Connolly, his manager): 'I want to fight Canelo in December!'
And he answers me: “No, man.
Let's Chill.
Let's keep winning, racking up knockouts, building your record and building you. '
I think the same, but sometimes I get anxious.
I want a title ”, Berlanga acknowledged in an interview published in
The Ring
magazine
.
For now, the level of opposition he encountered has been low and the results are in sight.
This Saturday, the 3,500 spectators who will attend the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee will find in front of them an opponent who appears a little more complicated than the previous 16.
Nicholson, 28, has a record of 23 wins (20 of them before the limit), 3 losses and 1 draw.
He prevailed in his last five appearances after losing in April 2018 to former World Cup challenger Jesse Hart.
It remains to be seen if he is able to support the weight of Berlanga's right hand at least a little more than his 16 predecessors.
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