ORLANDO, FLORIDA – After swatting aside the hopelessly overmatched Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz inside a round at the Caribe Royal Resort in Orlando, Florida on Saturday night, the super-middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga became a promotional free agent.

BoxingScene was unable to persuade anyone on Berlanga's team to speak on the record about his next move, although Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn expressed a willingness to re-sign the self-styled "Chosen One".

In his post-fight in-ring interview, as during fight week, Berlanga, 23-1 (18 KOs) name-checked the likes of Jaime Munguia, Jermall Charlo, and – above all – Caleb Plant as possible future opponents he wants to face in 2025. One name he didn't mention was the undefeated Diego Pacheco, and should Berlanga indeed leave Matchroom, Pacheco automatically becomes the company's leading super-middleweight.

The 24-year-old Pacheco, 23-0 (18 KOs), also would appear to have plenty of options.

Camille Estephan, the promoter of the unbeaten Christian Mbilli, who most recently defeated Sergiy Derevyanchenko to improve to 28-0 (23 KOs), posted on social media recently that Pacheco had agreed to face the Frenchman and that he hoped to stage the contest, for the interim WBC title, in Montreal.

In a conversation with BoxingScene, Hearn confirmed that the two sides have been in discussions. However, he added that was not Pacheco's only possible pathway.

"We are in discussions with them and the WBC," he confirmed. "Our issue is we're number one with the WBO, so we're basically mandatory. So do we want to take this opportunity with the WBC against Mbilli? We love the fight. Yeah, it's a good fight, and a tough fight, but Diego needs that kind of challenge."

The issue, Hearn continued, is whether that is preferable to waiting for a mandatory shot against the WBO 168lbs champion, who happens to be a certain Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.

"The thing is, you've got to be ready for Canelo," Hearn reasoned. "There's no point just fighting him for the sake of it, especially when you're young, like Diego. So the Mbilli fight could give us great prep for Canelo. Like I said, we like the fight. We are in negotiations with one or two other fighters as well for him to return in June, but we're definitely open to Mbili, and we'll see where it goes.”

Berlanga’s victory over Gonzalez-Ortiz came on the undercard of the middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams’ victory over Patrice Volny. The welterweight Omari Jones had by then made his professional debut, when stopping Alessio Mastronunzio in two rounds.