Edgar Berlanga made his Matchroom debut at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, and he dropped a spirited Jason Quigley four times on route to a points win in New York.
After a studying mission from both in round one, the home favourite warmed to his task, and dropped Quigley (20-3, 14 KOs) with a short, left-right combination at the end of the third.
The 32-year-old, former world title challenger beat the count easily, and fought back in the fourth admirably, but his shots were carrying less power than Berlanga’s, and he was counted again in the fifth for what looked more like a stumble.
The pattern was set, with the 26-year-old’s power punches simply doing more damage than Quigley’s, and try as he might, the Irishman couldn’t make a significant dent in his opponent.
As the contest went into the championship rounds, Quigley, who was stopped by Demetrius Andrade in two rounds in November 2021, kept good movement, but never looked like getting the knockout that he needed, and Berlanga capitalised in the final frame by scoring two more knockdowns to put an exclamation point on the result as the fight went to the cards.
One score of 118-106, and two at 116-108 confirmed a controlled victory for Berlanga, who retained his WBO NABO super middleweight title and mentioned Jaime Munguia and Gennady Golovkin as future opponents post-fight.
Kownacki suffers shock defeat to Cusumano
On the undercard, Adam Kownacki suffered a fourth straight loss, and he was pummelled into submission by Joe Cusumano, who forced the Pole’s corner to throw in the towel in the eighth of a scheduled ten at heavyweight.
Kownacki (20-4, 15 KOs) was down in the opening round, but showed tremendous heart in a real slugfest, and had his moments, hurting Cusumano (22-4, 20 KOs) during the contest.
The 34-year-old should have been pulled out earlier than he was, and belatedly the towel came in from his corner, handing the Virginia native a stunning win and third consecutive victory since a first round loss to Daniel Dubois.
Remaining Undercard
At super lightweight, Reshat Mati (14-0, 8 kOs) stayed undefeated, stopping Dakota Linger (13-6-3, 9 KOs) in the ninth of their ten rounder.
In eight rounders, Khalil Coe (6-0-1, 4 KOs) proved too much for the previously undefeated Buneet Bisla (7-1, 3 KOs) taking a seventh round win at light heavyweight, and Yankiel Rivera Figueroa (4-0, 2 KOs) dropped Christian Robles (8-1, 3 KOs) on the way to a points win at flyweight.
𝑩𝑰𝑮 𝑺𝑻𝑬𝑷𝑷𝑨 💥@Khalilcoe1 takes Bisla’s 0 with an emphatic stoppage victory in the seventh#CoeBisla #BerlangaQuigley pic.twitter.com/oVUKB1C2AU
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) June 24, 2023
Ofacio Falcon (10-0, 6 KOs) took all six rounds in his lightweight contest against Pedro Vicente Scharbaai (7-6-1, 2 KOs), and Pablo Valdez (7-0, 6 KOs) stopped Demian Daniel Fernandez (14-5, 5 KOs) in the fourth of their six rounder at super welterweight.
