Edgar Berlanga and Jason Quigley enjoyed one more intense staredown before they meet in the ring this weekend.
Both boxers were under the 168-pound super middleweight for their scheduled 12-round main event this Saturday at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York City. Brooklyn’s Berlanga officially weighed 167.8 pounds during Friday’s official pre-fight weigh-in under the supervision of the New York State Athletic Commission. Ireland’s Quigley was 167.6 pounds for their regional title fight which will top a DAZN show (Saturday, 8:00 p.m. ET).
Their obligatory faceoff lasted nearly two full minutes and featured spirited banter before Quigley turned to pose for the crowd and assembled media at Hulu Theater.
Berlanga (20-0, 16KOs) makes his Matchroom Boxing debut, which comes exactly 54 weeks since his last bout. The popular Nuyorican was dealt a six-month suspension for an attempted bite late in his ten-round, unanimous decision win over Alexis Angulo last June 11 at this very venue.
The bout was his last with Top Rank, with whom Berlanga parted on publicly amicable terms. Saturday will mark his third straight appearance at Hulu Theater.
Quigley (20-2, 14KOs) fights at super middleweight for the second straight time after a career largely spent at middleweight.
The move up in weight followed a year-plus ring absence for the 32-year-old Irishman after a November 2021 second-round knockout defeat to then-WBO middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade in Manchester, New Hampshire. Quigley returned to the ring with a ten-round win on April 1 in Dublin at the full super middleweight limit, one week prior to confirmation as Berlanga’s opponent.
DAZN main undercard, 8:00 p.m. ET
Adam Kownacki (20-3, 15KOs), Brooklyn, 251.8 pounds vs. Joe Cusumano (21-4, 19KOs), Danville, Virginia, 238.2 pounds—10 rounds, heavyweight
Reshat Mati (13-0, 7KOs), Staten Island, New York, 140.6 pounds vs. Dakota Linger (13-5-3, 9KOs), Buckhannon, West Virginia, 140.8 pounds—10 rounds, junior welterweight
Yankiel Rivera (3-0, 2KOs), Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, 111.4 pounds vs. Christian Robles (8-0, 3KOs), Los Angeles via Zapopan, Mexico, 111.2 pounds—8 rounds, flyweight
DAZN ‘Before The Bell’ Prelims, 6:00 p.m. ET
Khalil Coe (5-0-1, 3KOs), Flemington, New Jersey, 176.2 pounds vs. Buneet Bisla (7-0, 3KOs), Surrey, Canada, 173.6 pounds—8 rounds, light heavyweight
‘Pretty Boy’ Pablo Valdez (6-0, 5KOs), New York City, 154 pounds vs. Demian Daniel Fernandez (14-4, 5KOs), Buenos Aires, Argentina, 154 pounds—6 rounds, junior middleweight
Ofacio Falcon (9-0, 6KOs), The Bronx, New York, 134.8 pounds vs. Pedro Vicente (7-5-1, 2KOs), Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, 133.6 pounds—6 rounds, lightweight
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox