{"id":630584,"date":"2026-06-10T05:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/630584\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T05:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:49:10","slug":"berlanga-draws-butler-hitchins-gets-salas-in-first-zuffa-assignments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/630584\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlanga Draws Butler, Hitchins Gets Salas In First Zuffa Assignments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770669047_552_google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>The bout marks Berlanga\u2019s first appearance since suffering a fifth-round knockout loss to current WBO super middleweight champion Hamzah Sheeraz last July in Queens. Before the setback, the Brooklyn native had returned to the win column with a victory over Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz following his unsuccessful challenge of Saul \u201cCanelo\u201d Alvarez for the undisputed 168-pound championship.<\/p>\n<p>Butler enters the contest on a four-fight knockout streak since moving up to super middleweight, with victories over Fernando Farias, Jose de Jesus Macias, Stephane Fondjo, and Ramadan Hiseni. The Canadian, however, has also been stopped in four of his five career defeats, including losses to former WBA middleweight champion Ryota Murata, current WBO middleweight titleholder Zhanibek Alimkhanuly, Macias, and Patrice Volny.<\/p>\n<p>EOTTM president Camille Estephan expressed confidence in Butler\u2019s chances against Berlanga.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t compare Berlanga to Janibek and Murata, but I can assure you that the Steven Butler who will fight in New York has nothing in common with the boxer he was five years ago. The power has always been there, but with the maturity he now possesses and the physical strength he has developed at super middleweight, I would even go so far as to say that a Steven who sticks to his game plan is the favorite against Berlanga,\u201d said Estephan.<\/p>\n<p>Butler believes the opportunity has come at the right time in his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve proven that I\u2019m ready to return to the international stage. I\u2019ve fought in Japan, so New York doesn\u2019t intimidate me. In fact, it\u2019s perfect because it\u2019s not too far from my training camp in Connecticut. As for the rest, I\u2019m working hard, and I plan to seize my opportunity in New York. You\u2019ll see. This is my moment,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n<p>Hitchins\u2019 opponent arrives with momentum of his own. Salas has won his last six fights and owns victories over Jesus Saracho and former welterweight contender Roiman Villa. The Mexican is not currently ranked among the top 15 by the WBA, WBC, IBF, or WBO.<\/p>\n<p>Tickets for the July 26 event are scheduled to go on sale July 19 through Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bout marks Berlanga\u2019s first appearance since suffering a fifth-round knockout loss to current WBO super middleweight champion&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-630584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}