Demond Nicholson Ready For Edgar Berlanga

Demond Nicholson is the latest man to take on Edgar Berlanga, Saturday, April 24, from the Silver Spurs Arena at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Florida, on ESPN. The Super Middleweight Nicholson (23-3-1, 20 KOs) is currently on a five-fight win streak since losing to Jesse Hart back in 2018.

I caught up with him and asked how much has changed in his world since then?

“Since Jesse Hart, a lot has changed for me,” Nicholson said to Big Fight Weekend. “Not just only with my trainers but with personal stuff outside the gym. I was dealing with a whole lot. But once you get past the hard times, you forget and let go and keep moving.”

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The biggest one was on May 10, 2019, when he was diagnosed with kidney failure. Nicholson is currently an Ambassador for the National Kidney Foundation and will be showing as much with their logo on his trunks when he faces Berlanga. Nicholson wanted to raise the awareness of kidney failure as it caught him.

“When I went through my situation, I was healthy,” Nicholson explained about his kidney failure. ‘I didn’t have any other conditions. No high blood pressure, no diabetes, nothing. I wanted people to understand that even at 100% healthy, something drastic in your life can happen.”

“85% of the world would never think that they would be in 100% shape and die from kidney failure. I can help information for people in need. So many people in the world have kidney problems and need.”

One of those changes was switching trainers to the current one in Calvin Ford out of Baltimore. In preparation for Berlanga, Nicholson told me the process of what they have been doing training camp.

“Mentally, Coach Calvin (Ford) beat a lot of things in my head in what I need to do, round for round. Everything has been repetition. Whatever you see me do in the fight, trust me, I was doing it every single day, over and over and over again. In this fight here, I’m going to be the robot for my coach Calvin. They beat this gameplan into my head,” Nicholson stated.

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That repetition will come him handily as he faces a man who hasn’t heard the end of round one in the ring yet in Berlanga after 16 professional fights. In his 11th pro fight in the same venue, I saw him wipe out well known Gyorgy Varju in just 43 seconds (okay, maybe not well known). Nicholson advised me that this not be his fate on Saturday.

“Edgar Berlanga has never been in the ring with me. He’s seeing the second, third, maybe even the fourth round with me. Physically, mentally or spiritually, he’s never seen anyone like me in the ring. All of that first-round stuff can go out the door,” Nicholson noted.