NEW YORK – Edgar Berlanga always wanted to teach Jaime Munguia a lesson.

The super middleweight rivals still haven’t fought, but Berlanga remembered an invaluable lesson from Munguia’s stunning second defeat. Munguia’s shocking knockout loss to French underdog Bruno Surace on December 14 reminded Berlanga that anything can happen in the ring, even against the least imposing opponent.

France’s Surace entered the ring with a 15 percent knockout ratio. He was knocked down during the second round by the more experienced, proven Munguia as well.

That didn’t stop Surace from landing a picture-perfect right hand in the sixth round that dropped Munguia and led to The Ring’s “Upset of the Year” for 2024.

Hamzah Sheeraz isn’t nearly as big of an underdog against Berlanga as Surace was when he met Munguia, who was a 35-1 favorite. Berlanga remains mindful, however, of what happened to Mexico’s Munguia in what was supposed to be a tune-up fight in his hometown of Tijuana.

Brooklyn’s Berlanga also admitted he was almost as surprised Sheeraz accepted a fight with him on The Ring’s next card July 12 as he was when Surace drilled Munguia with that career-altering punch six months ago. The unbeaten Brit will make his super middleweight debut against Berlanga, who has fought at or near the super middleweight limit of 168 pounds for the past five years, including a decisive points loss to undisputed champ Canelo Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) last September 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“Yeah, [Sheeraz] was backing out from it, too, I heard,” Berlanga told a group of reporters after a press conference Thursday at Palladium Times Square. “I heard he was backing out from it. He didn’t wanna take the fight and he took it. They was pressuring him to take the fight. But listen, at the end of the day anything can happen in a fight. You know, remember, Munguia got knocked the f--- out by a nobody.

“A guy that only had four knockouts put him out. Who woulda thought? That was supposed to be a walkthrough for Munguia and Munguia got knocked out. So, that really woke me up. … I never not took a fighter serious. But seeing that was like, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotta [step on] the gas cuz anything can happen.’ ”

Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs) predicted he would knock out Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs), who moved up from the middleweight limit of 160 pounds to the super middleweight maximum of 168 after a suspect split draw with WBC middleweight champ Carlos Adames (24-1-1, 18 KOs) on February 22 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. DraftKings established Berlanga, The Ring’s No. 9-ranked super middleweight, as a slight favorite to defeat England’s Sheeraz, rated No. 3 by The Ring at middleweight, in one of four fights DAZN Pay-Per-View will distribute from Louis Armstrong Stadium, a tennis venue in Queens.

Munguia, meanwhile, avenged his knockout defeat to Surace (26-1-2, 5 KOs) by outpointing him on each scorecard in their immediate rematch May 3 at ANB Arena. Judges Howard Foster (117-111), Kieran McCann (116-112) and Ron McNair (117-111) all scored Munguia as a comfortable winner over Surace in their second fight.

Berlanga, 27, hopes beating Sheeraz, 25, intensifies interest in his own showdown with Munguia (45-2, 35 KOs), who demonstrated defensive improvement in his second fight with Surace.

After reminding reporters he won’t overlook Sheeraz, Berlanga boasted, “I wanna f--- Munguia up, too.”