Tony Bellew expects Canelo Alvarez to defeat Edgar Berlanga this weekend, but he thinks the Mexican icon could be past his best.
Canelo will put his world super-middleweight titles on the line in Las Vegas, live on DAZN, and he enters the bout against Berlanga as a significant favourite.
Since losing to Dmitry Bivol in 2022, Canelo has rebuilt brilliantly at 168lbs with wins over the likes of Gennadiy Golovkin, Jermell Charlo, and Jaime Munguia.
Bellew, a former world champion at cruiserweight, has long been impressed with Canelo’s skillset, but after such a long run on top, he believes he could be declining.
“I fully expect Canelo to beat Berlanga, but can I be confident that he blows him away? No, not really,” said Bellew when speaking exclusively to DAZN.
“It’s crazy to see still Canelo at such a high level because he’s been around the best fighters for so long now. It’s natural to slow down after 65 fights and I think we’ve seen that in recent fights.
“Canelo knows a lot and that will get him past most fighters, but it’s gonna be interesting when he goes in with the absolute elite fighters to see what he has left there. He should be fine against Berlanga, but Iet’s see how he gets it done. I’ll be very impressed if he can do a proper job on him.”
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