Sometimes, a loss in a fighter’s first significant step up in competition can be the best thing to happen to their career.

Canelo Alvarez reached another stratosphere after his unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather on Sept. 14, 2013, going on a 16-fight run without a defeat and winning titles at junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight, cementing his place as one of the best fighters of this era. That run more than likely wouldn’t have been possible without the lessons learned from his 12 rounds against Mayweather.

Now, Edgar Berlanga is hoping the lessons he took away from his loss to Canelo pay off as he looks to cement his place as one of the best 168-pounders in the world.

Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs) will face Hamzah Sheeraz in a WBC super middleweight title eliminator on July 12 in the main event of The Ring’s “Ring III” pay-per-view show at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York, on DAZN PPV. Despite his "0" being gone, Berlanga’s confidence and spirit rose following his performance vs Canelo — exactly nine years after his defeat to Mayweather.

“My confidence is on another level now,” Berlanga told The Ring ahead of his win over Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz on March 15. “I feel like I went from middle school to college, from one day to the next. It was a game-changer for me.”

The early rounds of Berlanga’s fight vs Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) for his undisputed super middleweight title looked the part of a fighter making an enormous jump in competition, or as he put it, a middle schooler going straight to college. Canelo was in complete control and dropped Berlanga with a clean left hook in the third round.

Canelo remained in control, but Berlanga began to show signs of growth as the rounds progressed. He started to hold his own and didn't back down or lose control in moments when the fight got dirty or overly physical.

Ultimately, those signs of life still weren’t enough to alter the momentum of the fight. Canelo outlanded Berlanga 201-119 in total punches and 133-65 in power shots, en route to winning 118-109 twice and 117-110 on the judges' scorecards.

But even with the fight and scorecards being wide, there were positives for the 28-year-old Brooklyn, New York, native to take away from his performance in the second half of the fight. Of his 119 punches landed, 82 came after the fifth round, as he averaged nearly 12 punches landed per round in the final seven.

Among those who saw Berlanga show signs of growth was trainer Stephen “Breadman” Edwards. Edwards, whose stable of fighters includes Caleb Plant, Julian Williams and Kyrone Davis, was impressed with the improvement he saw from Berlanga in the latter stages.

“I thought he handled himself well, especially in the second half of the fight,” Breadman told The Ring. “You can see him growing as the fight went on and he didn’t completely fall apart. You can always take a positive from that, even though he lost the fight. I think that was a valuable learning experience in the fight. You can watch him growing as the fight was going. He went from a guy who was a little bit out of depth to a guy that was like, ‘You know what, I can compete on this level.’

"His confidence grew in that fight. Whether he will admit it or not, it's one thing to think you can compete on a level. It's something different to actually go out and do it. I think that's one of the reasons why he was so happy after the fight, because it was one of those things, like, 'I can have some success, even though I didn't win the fight.’”

In Berlanga’s lone fight since the loss to Canelo, he knocked out an overmatched Gonzalez-Ortiz, giving him his 17th first-round stoppage.

The application of the lessons learned from the loss to Canelo will be critical to Berlanga’s chances vs Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs). Sheeraz, who stands at 6-foot-3, is quite easily the second-best opponent Berlanga has faced. He had stopped 15 straight opponents before he fought to a split draw vs Carlos Adames on Feb. 22, his last fight at middleweight before moving up to make his super middleweight debut against Berlanga.

Hall of Fame blow-by-blow commentator Jim Lampley also views what Berlanga has taken away from the Canelo fight as a deciding factor vs Sheeraz.

“It was as though he skipped his senior year to go right into the ring with the professor,” Lampley told The Ring. “There was such a vast difference in experience, in sophistication, in nuance, there are very few fighters in the world from whom you can learn as much facing off against them, as is the case with Canelo. So you have to hope for Berlanga's sake that he paid attention. That he recognized all of the differences between himself and his background and Canelo, and that he brings a higher level of craft and sophistication into the ring against Sheeraz.

"Sheeraz is a taller British counterpuncher. He probably hasn't faced anyone who's even remotely analogous to somebody like Canelo Alvarez. So the critical marker going into the fight is, 'OK, Berlanga got the expected loss against Alvarez. What did he learn?'”