When the final bell rang on September 14th, 2024, everyone in T-Mobile Arena, including Edgar Berlanga, knew that Canelo Alvarez was the better man.

For the better part of 36 minutes, the 27-year-old was bullied and outworked. Once it was over, Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) patted Berlanga on the back and gave him a friendly head nod. From there, he went his way but Berlanga didn’t move an inch.

Even now, several months later, Berlanga is still stuck on what took place. If he attempts to forget about it, he’ll be acknowledging that Alvarez won. For now, he’ll sit back and watch as the Mexican star continues to do his thing. He knows that he’s an afterthought in Alvarez’s mind, an inconsequential victim on his Hall of Fame resume. However, while he has no choice but to take that loss on the chin, it doesn’t mean things are over between them.

“It’s unfinished business,” said Berlanga on Cigar Talk. “That chapter with me and him is not closed. We need to run that back.”

Currently, Berlanga is the furthest thing from Alvarez’s mind. He has a date lined up with William Scull on May 3rd. Then, if he puts the Cuban out of his misery, he’ll attempt to defend his undisputed throne against Terence Crawford in September.

Alvarez is a busy man nowadays but Berlanga isn’t sitting back and watching the clock tick by. He recently took out his Canelo frustrations on Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz, stopping him in the first round.

Now that he’s back on track, he’ll step up his level of competition. As first reported by The Ring, Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs) will take on Hamzah Sheeraz on July 12th, in New York City.

To a certain extent, Berlanga was spoon-fed to Alvarez. He lacked big fight experience and fought practically no one of note beforehand. The Puerto Rican star knows that he can’t rely on Alvarez’s kindness again. No, if he wants another shot on the big stage, he’ll have to earn it this time.

“For me to run that back, I got to make a mark.”