Edgar Berlanga vows to not only win his fight against Canelo Alvarez .... but he's also promising to retire the legendary boxer, telling TMZ Sports boxing needs a new frontman!
"I'm destined right now to make history on September 14th," the boxer said ahead of his Las Vegas bout against Alvarez. "To become a legend that day, to take over the sport of boxing and become the face."
Of course, Alvarez is one of the faces in boxing ... along with other fighters like Terence Crawford and Gervonta Davis.
But, the 27-year-old Brooklyn native says Alvarez's time's been up ... respectfully.
"He did what he had to do in the sport of boxing," Edgar said ... "but I think right now it's my time."
"It's our time to come over and just take over. It needs a new face at 168 [lbs]."
"I wanna definitely retire him, for sure. That's my goal. I'm not trying to sit here and disrespect or nothing, he a legend, but at the end of the day we gotta fight."
Trash talk aside, Berlanga -- who won his 22nd fight (by knockout) in February -- says he appreciates Alvarez giving him a shot at the WBC and WBO super middleweight title, declaring himself the "perfect" owner for the belts.
Edgar, of course, is fighting an A-list star in Canelo ... but Berlanga has some star power on his team, too -- he tells us Fat Joe will walk him to the ring vs. Alvarez. Berlanga has also spent time with Deion Sanders ... who met up with the boxer to provide some inspiration.
We'll see if Coach Prime's sermon works come Sept. 14.