Weeks after he made his debut in Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing, where he knocked out Steven Butler in the seventh round, Edgar Berlanga reflected on an old controversy that once brought him comparisons to Mike Tyson. Speaking on RING CHAMPS with AK and Barak, he revealed the reason behind the alleged biting incident against an opponent.

“So with that one, I was talking about that on the stream. People don’t know, right? That dude was fighting dirty the whole fight,” Edgar Berlanga clarified. “Like I had lumps all over, like lumps and bruises and sh*t from, like, elbows and headbutts. If you like a guy on YouTube, break the whole fight down, okay? And you could see every round like he was throwing uppercuts. He was hitting me with elbows.”

According to Edgar Berlanga, Angulo used his head as a battering ram. While he did not suffer any cuts, the Colombian continued to use underhanded tactics. He tried pointing out Angulo’s infringements to the referee, but his complaints proved pointless.

“Like, this dude is a real legit dirty fighter, you know what I mean? And in every shot I was feeling was elbows and headbutts. So, during the moment, I just got upset,” Berlanga added.

Berlanga’s comments center around the fight that took place on June 11, 2022, in New York’s Hulu Theater. Headlining the Top Rank-promoted card, the Brooklyn-born fighter, then 25, faced the Roamer Alexis Angulo. Coming off a win over fellow Colombian Carlos Galvan, Angulo had previously suffered defeats from David Benavidez and Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez.

With his NABO middleweight title, which he secured a year earlier, Berlanga won the fight by a unanimous decision.

Even so, beyond that title defense, the fight gained notoriety thanks to the untoward incident in the seventh round. During a clinch, Berlanga seemingly tried to bite Angulo on the left shoulder.

After he won, Berlanga reportedly joked that he was “about to do a Mike Tyson on him (Angulo),” referencing one of the darkest chapters in boxing history, when Mike Tyson bit off a part of Evander Holyfield’s ear during their rematch, resulting in his disqualification. Billed as “The Sound and the Fury,” the fight became better known as “The Bite Fight.”

Unlike Tyson, in Berlanga’s fight, referee Ricky Gonzales failed to notice the bite. However, like Tyson, he soon found himself under criticism, including from his promoter at the time, Top Rank head Bob Arum, as well.

Edgar Berlanga faces the consequences of the bite

Referring to the measure taken by the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC), which decided to suspend Berlanga for six months while also imposing a $10,000 fine, the veteran promoter described Berlanga’s move as “a bad intentional foul” and acknowledged that he couldn’t question the commission’s decision.

Like many others, what troubled Arum was the way Berlanga bragged about the incident, and he stated that the issue would be taken up when they subsequently met.

Afterward, Berlanga apologized on social media, saying, “I want to apologize for my actions and what I said about the Mike Tyson bite. I was in the moment and got a little ahead of myself. It doesn’t take away from the embarrassment that I have caused upon myself, my team, Top Rank, and many others.”

“I reacted poorly and take full responsibility. Moving forward, I am going to be more mindful and encouraging in my behavior. Once again, I do apologize.”

To set the record straight, Berlanga is not the only one to have attempted to bite his opponent.

Just two years before the Angulo fight, the NYSAC had taken similar measures against Ivan Redkach for allegedly biting Danny Garcia’s shoulder during the title eliminator that took place on January 25, 2020. After initially stating that the Ukrainian “should forfeit his entire $300,000 purse,” the commissions, as they did for Berlanga later, imposed a six-month ban along with a $10,000 fine.

In Berlanga’s case, he likely overstepped and engaged in unprofessional conduct. But as he admitted, it happened in the heat of the moment. There was no preplanned intention to bite his opponent.