Edgar Berlanga is one of boxing’s brashest and most outspoken personalities. The super middleweight slugger tends to be draped in expensive jewellery, and pulls even fewer punches verbally than he does in the ring. From a marketing perspective, Berlanga has navigated the narrative arc of his career expertly. His first-round knockout streak, 16 to begin his professional career, garnered him mainstream attention as a large handful of them were aired on national television on ESPN.

As tends to happen with prospects who receive a lot of press, particularly for early stoppage wins, it also turned Berlanga into a divisive figure. Those eager to disprove the hypothesis of Berlanga’s ceiling rallied as hard against him as his ardent fans cheered for him. Berlanga leaned into this dynamic, materializing in the biggest fight possible against Canelo Alvarez last year, assuming the role of the antagonist against one of the world’s most popular athletes.

Berlanga’s performance in a losing effort, getting off the canvas to go the distance with Alvarez, earned him newfound respect, and a fresh batch of fans. The 27-year old returned to action for the first time since the Canelo clash with an easy first-round knockout victory over Jonathan Gonzalez on March 15, and immediately turned his attention to more big fights, in particular, ones against Caleb Plant or Jaime Munguia.

When you ask Berlanga about his professional motivations, they’re fairly straightforward and familiar when it comes to high-level athletes. “Legacy and the bag,” he says, repeating it as a mantra.

But as Berlanga is on what he’s dubbing his “free agency tour,” making the media rounds to potentially entice Plant or Munguia and major promoters who might want to do business, he’s on an entirely separate tour to spread awareness about a plight near to his heart.

Berlanga has lent his support to The Cristian Rivera Foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), and supporting the children and their families affected by the disease. The foundation was started by John Rivera in memory of his late son Cristian. Rivera is close friends with Berlanga’s father, whose grandson—Berlanga’s son Chosen—was born with a pituitary gland condition that nearly turned fatal just two days into his life.

DIPG is an aggressive form of brain cancer that affects children primarily between the ages of 5 and 7. It makes up upwards of 15% of all brain tumor diagnoses in children every year, but less than 10% of those diagnosed survive two years beyond their diagnosis.

Though Chosen’s plight is different than those living with DIPG, the issues hit close to home. Then, Berlanga found out about three-time national amateur champion Jesselyn Silva, who was working her way towards an Olympic spot when she was diagnosed with DIPG in 2021. Silva passed away in August of 2024, news that devastated Berlanga.

“Everything just made sense when I found that out, and I was like I'm gonna do this,” said Berlanga, who walked to the ring for his bout against Roamer Alexis Angulo with Silva. “It was like more like a family thing, and then with Jessalyn being a boxer, and then her brain problem and then my son Chosen has an issue too with his pituitary gland with his brain so he has to take medication every day. You know, everything just like trickled down, and I just wanted to be involved you know and help the kids.”

For Berlanga, it’s also about the larger cause of continuing the chain of community aid that helped him get to where he is today. As a child, he trained and studied in the Cops and Kids program in Brooklyn, New York, where volunteers helped him learn the sport and also tutor and mentor him after training. It’s a program that helped foster other high-level fighters such as Chris Colbert and Richardson Hitchins, whom Berlanga grew up around as well.

Behind the scenes, in his private moments, Berlanga is a father of a child with special medical needs and a youth mentor, the antithesis of the flashy personality he’s widely known for having.

“It's not easy being in my shoes. Everybody looks at the glamour, the fame, and stuff, but you know I'm glad that I'm doing this and I'm talking about this stuff so people can have awareness that it's not what y'all see on Instagram, you know. It's bigger than that. Like I said before, you know I'm for the kids and you know everything I do is for them, you know, for the next generation, and just trying to help them,” said Berlanga. ”I feel like just, I got the platform now, you know? My name is big and I know that I have a big impact in a lot of a lot of people, and I'm just doing God's work.”

Berlanga may indeed be fighting for legacy, but it’s one that he hopes will include more than just a collection of in-ring triumphs. And while he hopes to amass generational wealth through the sport, part of that, he hopes, can go towards a cause bigger than himself.

"I always said that they're the real warriors, you know. I always told Jesselyn, you're the real warrior. I fight in the ring but you're fighting for your life, like literally fighting for your life. So, you know it's a different type of mentality and mindset you have to have to be fighting for your life man. Nobody has experienced that until they're put in that position where they actually fight for their life or for their health," said Berlanga. "It definitely motivates me in the ring to know I'm fighting for these kids. When I win, they win, you know? If I can keep winning and being a great role model to them, showing (them how) to stay strong and stay positive and keep working hard, we're going to keep working hard on finding that cure for them. That's all that matters to me."