Edgar Berlanga takes center stage Saturday evening against two-time title challenge Alexis Angulo in the 10-round main event at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden.
Angulo was the fighter who arrived at the scale overweight Friday, though. The Colombian contender stepped on the New York State Athletic Commission’s scale at 169.6 pounds for his 10-round fight against Edgar Berlanga on Saturday night, 1.6 pounds above his contracted limit of 168.
The NYSAC gave Angulo its customary two hours to come back to its scale on weight. Their fight is expected to move forward if Angulo doesn’t get all the way down to 168 pounds, but he’ll have to pay a financial penalty to Berlanga and the NYSAC.
Brooklyn’s Berlanga officially weighed in at 167.6 pounds.
Berlanga (19-0, 16 KOs) is listed as almost a 3-1 favorite by most sportsbooks, but he has gone the distance in each of his past three fights after starting his career with 16 first-round knockout wins. Colombia’s Angulo (27-2, 23 KOs) is 38 years old, but only Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) has stopped him inside the distance.
Berlanga, 25, and Angulo will headline a doubleheader ESPN will air from Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York. Their main event will take place the night prior to the 65th annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan, which figures to help draw a capacity crowd full of supportive Puerto Rican fans for Berlanga and other Puerto Ricans scheduled to compete on the undercard.
–boxingscene.com
