Mexican icon Canelo Alvarez hasn’t come close to facing the type of puncher as Edgar Berlanga, the unbeaten American has said ahead of their clash in Las Vegas next month.

Berlanga, who is just 27, infamously began his career by scoring 16 successive first-round knockouts ahead of their matchup to contest Canelo’s WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles in the T-Mobile Arena on September 14, Berlanga says that he expects his power to pay dividends once more.

“A thousand percent,” Berlanga told Fight Hub TV of his belief in his ability to drop Canelo to the canvas next month. “Bro, I knocked heavyweights out in sparring. Guys 230, 240, putting them out.

More recently, and as competition increased, Berlanga has scored just one finish — a sixth round TKO of Padraig McCrory last February — in his past six. But Berlanga believes there is a reason for some of his recent fights going to the judges’ scorecards.

“From the four years being away from Mark [Farrait], my trainer you know when we split, I got away from that,” Berlanga said. “I lost the killer instinct. I got felons on my team, ex felons, guys that did a lot of years in prison, so I got that mentality. In that ring, I’m a killer so that’s just what I bring.”

Canelo, regarded as one of the finest fighters of his generation, comes to the fight with significant pedigree of his own, as evidenced by a 65-fight career showing just once defeat in the past decade — to the outstanding Dmitry Bivol in a light heavyweight fight in May 2022.

Berlanga, though, isn’t concerned by reputation. “You bleed like me, you breathe the same air I breathe, you walk on the same Earth that I walk on, he’s nothing different. He’s not a robot from outer space. He’s a human. It’s the mental, it’s the mentality.”