Edgar Berlanga didn't get the knockout that he was targeting and was vulnerable to a crisp jab, but he did enough to take a unanimous decision in his main event debut.
Judges at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night scored it 96-94, 97-93 and 97-93 all in favor of Berlanga, who had more trouble with a 37-year-old Steve Rolls than expected. Yet, the 24-year-old Berlanga seemed pleased to improve to 19-0. This marks Berlanga's third straight fight that has gone the distance after recording a first-round KO in each of his first 16 bouts.
"I was just looking for the big shot," Berlanga conceded to ESPN following the win. "My corner was telling me use the jab, my elbow was bothering me a little bit, but I'm just happy we got the victory and we're moving forward."
Berlanga steadily moved forward, stalking Rolls around the ring but that aggression couldn't spell enough defense to avoid the Canadian's snappy jab which found its mark consistently throughout the fight. Berlanga found most success when lunging and unloading on hooks but even those power shots never came close to threatening a knockout of Rolls.
Compounding Berlanga's frustration on a night that should have been a grand homecoming for the New Yorker was the fact that an elbow during a clash opened up a cut on his left eye in the second round with blood trickling out of his nose in the seventh.
Despite Rolls's strategy to backpedal around the ring while pumping the jab, Berlanga was still able to get the better of their exchanges when he closed in on that space enough to grab the unanimous decision.
"Tonight he was a scared fighter," Berlanga offered of Rolls. "It's hard to try to land and get your shots off when you're fighting someone who's scared."
He added a fear that "everybody's gonna run now" and that "now we gotta practice on fighters running because that's all they're gonna do."
Berlanga also stated that he had to overcome blurry vision in the fifth and sixth rounds due to blood in his eye.
The Brooklynite had a crowded corner consisting of his dad, Edgar Berlanga Sr., Andre Rozier and Kay Koroma but insisted "same instructions, different voice."