“I want Chris Eubank… If he’s not on the menu, we got Jaime Munguia… You got Caleb Plant… You got Jermall Charlo… You know the fight that we want. The Hamzah Sheeraz fight,” said Berlanga at tonight’s post-fight press conference after his win over Butler.

Handing Edgar Berlanga a shot at the WBA super middleweight crown right now would look absurd. Sanctioning bodies and champion teams already face heavy criticism for questionable matchmaking, and rewarding Berlanga with a title fight after his recent run destroys standard meritocracy.

Jaime Munguia picked up the WBA title against Armando Resendiz through a tough twelve-round effort. Defending that belt against someone who spent a full year on the shelf following a brutal knockout loss to Hamzah Sheeraz makes little sense. Beating Steven Butler, a fighter brought in as a manageable target who still managed to drop Berlanga in the second round, does not qualify anyone for a world championship opportunity.

If Munguia accepts a match with Berlanga next, it becomes a pure cash grab that bypasses deserving contenders sitting higher in the rankings. Dangerous, high-risk fighters like IBF titleholder Osleys Iglesias get ignored while Berlanga tries to parlay a shaky performance into a major payday. The boxing public sees right through those tactics, and giving Berlanga an unearned path to a belt only hurts the credibility of the division.