WHAT is Edgar Berlanga planning for Pody McCrory? Exactly what you’d expect from someone who sparked out the first 16 guys he met in the first round.
“I’m looking to hurt him and knock him the **** out,” boasted the Brooklyn-born/Puerto Rican (Nuyorican) hardman over the phone from his Florida training camp last weekend.
A softly-spoken family man from West Belfast, McCrory, who left for Orlando on Monday, is the polar opposite of the macho gunslinger he’ll trade leather with on Saturday night (4am approximately on Sunday Irish time) at the Caribe Royale Resort.
He’ll have to cope with Berlanga’s trash-talking and bristling aggression at pre-fight events this week and can expect an all-out assault from the first bell on fight night.
“I hope he’s ready because I am coming with fireworks,” said Berlanga.
“When he sees me at the press conference and he looks into my eyes, he’s going to know what’s up. I’m about that action, I pray he comes healthy so we can put an amazing night on for the fans. I’m coming for blood.
“There’s going to be a lot of heat on him and he better be prepared. I know people that support me want to see the KO and I feel that something special is going to happen on February 24.
“I’ve been working on so much stuff and I just feel different mentally, that’s the most important thing. Boxing is 90 per cent mental, 10 per cent physical, and I just see something special on the horizon.
“My hands will do the talking on February 24 when I am pounding on his face.”
Berlanga began with an amazing streak of knockouts but he hasn’t finished early in his last five. He will be fired-up and hostile predicts that the atmosphere in the arena will match his mindset.
The Irish supporters will make themselves heard but the place will be packed with Puerto Rican’s baying for blood and after he beat Donegal’s Jason Quigley in his last fight (his only outing of 2023), Berlanga joked that he will be known as ‘the Irish Assassin’ if (and he believes it’s a foregone conclusion) he beats McCrory.
“I love the Irish fans, my manager (Irish-American Keith Connolly) is Irish,” said Berlanga.
“But McCrory has to go, it’s over for him - they will call me the Irish Assassin.
“The crowd in New York (for the Quigley fight) was amazing though, the Irish flags at ‘the Garden’, and they are a fighting country just like Puerto Rico, they have that fighting spirit in them.”
Back-tracking to an extent on his assessment of McCrory, Berlanga added: “This my hardest test so far for sure.
“He’s undefeated, so he’s coming with a different mentality. He’s going to do anything to protect that ‘0′ and I never overlook any opponent
“I know he’s coming to fight, he has something to prove, and that’s what I like. Every fight we’re stepping up and he is highly ranked, he’s unbeaten, he’s got the same number of fights as me and I think it’s going to be a good test.”
That said, Berlanga doesn’t believe McCrory (18-0) will be able to handle his power and he is already looking ahead to lucrative fights against Jaime Mungia or super-middleweight king ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in September.
“Once McCrory gets touched, I think he’s going to get on his bike,” he said.
“I don’t think he’s going to stay there and want to exchange with me but we are prepping for anything and everything.
“So if he tries to run and move around, box, try to lure me in and throw a sneaky shot, we see that coming. And if he wants to stay there and trade, well, they call him ‘The Hammer’ so he’s supposed to be displaying that so we’ll see.
“I’m not the guy that fought Jason (Quigley) and he’s going to see that. I’m getting better and better.
“I’m on a different level now physically. I’m sparring 15-16 rounds with three or four different guys and I didn’t get a chance to do that in my last camp with the injuries and coming back to camp overweight with the lay-off and not having a promoter, going through some depression in New York.
“We know we can go 12 strong rounds and go at it hard, and I know that if I do that, no one can stand a chance with me.”
COLM Murphy moved to 10-0 with a third round stoppage win against Tanzanian Julias Thomas Kisarawe at the Europa Hotel last Saturday night and the two-weight Irish champion is now chasing a shot at the Commonwealth featherweight title.
His next fight will be in Galway on March 16 and he intends to stay busy this year.
“It was good to get back in,” he said.
“It’s going to be a busy year and I’ve just got to keep winning and taking one step at a time. I’ve just won the mandatory for the Commonwealth title so it’ll be all eyes on that and hopefully I’ll get a chance to fight for it this year.
“Saturday was a great night, a great event and I was very happy with how I performed. I’m improving with every fight, I’m ticking the boxes so I’ll just listen to Mark (Dunlop, his manager) and go with what he thinks is the right next step. Whatever it is, I’ll be more than ready for it.”
Conor Quinn made short work of challenger Jemsi Kibazange at the Europa. Quinn moved to 9-0-1 with another impressive display of artistry and power and stopped his African opponent in the second round at the popular Belfast venue. A good start for Dee Walsh-trained Quinn and with 10 fights under his belt now he will expect to be challenging at British/Commonwealth level before long.
On the undercard, Connor Kerr and David Ryan won on points over six rounds against Jake Polland and Jake Smith respectively.