Sunny Edwards announced his retirement from the sport on Saturday evening following a sixth-round TKO defeat to Galal Yafai LIVE on DAZN from Resorts World Arena in Birmingham. ‘Showtime’ revealed he decided to hang up the gloves during fight camp regardless of the result against his old amateur foe.
In the preview for the fight dubbed ‘BLOODLINE’ I mentioned that the former 112lb IBF champion showed that his confidence and ring craft haven’t diminished in the slightest in his last outing against Adrian Curiel following his ninth-round stoppage defeat to Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez and that I was not suggesting that it would, but history shows how big losses can somewhat affect fighters.
That seems to have been the case for Edwards, who has accumulated injuries and lost love for the sport, causing him to declare that he was in tears after the fight with Curiel despite winning the contest. Any form of combat sport is brutal, and many elements outside of fight night have a diminishing effect on the mind and body of the competitor. Injuries bring an extra battle with your mentality, forcing you to question yourself and whether you have what it takes to keep going.
At the end of round two, it was heard loud and clear on the DAZN broadcast when Edwards told trainer Chris Williams, “Do you want me to be real with you? I don’t even want to be here,” Williams responded with a rousing speech to try and bring a spark into Sunny that didn’t fall on deaf ears as he had minimal success amid a barrage of combinations and constant pressure from Yafai. Edwards admitted he isn’t strong enough to sit in the pocket and trade punches with the best flyweights in the world, and he hasn’t got the physical or mental capacity to do what has brought him success in the past, which is to draw his opponents in close then pivot on his feet whilst landing punches.
Yafai looked fantastic from the opening bell; he closed the gap quickly, cutting the ring off and throwing volumes of punches throughout the six rounds. With little being returned his way, the referee warned Edwards that if he didn’t get anything from him, he was stopping the fight. Without being seriously hurt and without a huge shot landed on him that looked like he was going to be knocked out, it was simply the lack of response to the relentless work from the new WBC interim champion that saw the contest waived off just before the halfway stage.
Building a star
Matchroom chief Eddie Hearn wants to build on the progress in bringing big-time boxing back to Birmingham and hopes to do that with his undefeated flyweight. Defeating a former world champion who popularized the lower weight classes in the UK will make the decorated amateur even more of a household name. Boxing in his home city for just the second time at the weekend enabled him to draw a healthy crowd with a dance partner that carried a storyline on the domestic scene but at the world level. After boxing on big cards on a global scale, fans will now call for it to be capitalized on and try to lure the champions to Birmingham or the UK.
The full champion Kenshiro Teraji(24-1) fought Cristofer Rosales(37-7) in October, with the bout being unexpectedly stopped at the start of the eleventh round due to a broken nose for Nicaraguan Rosales, who was seemingly fine but for the doctor to see enough to call it off. With the pair due to meet again and most likely in Japan, promoter Hearn admits that it’s going to be hard to try and get the likes of Teraji over to the U;K however, being the global powerhouse that Matchroom is and with the backing of DAZN the current champion will receive an offer to avoid purse bids that will exceed any amount he’s ever had before.
Building a boxer into a superstar is Hearn’s forte, and with Yafai currently at 31 years of age, he finds himself nine fights into his pro career and in position for a title shot. The ceiling is unknown for the best flyweight in the UK, but he does have a size advantage over the current crop at 112lbs, so who knows, maybe a trip up to super flyweight in the future?
Creating the big fights with the likes of pound-for-pound superstar Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez is also what Yafai wants, and there’s no doubt he’s well on his way to doing so after this most recent performance dominating the man who spear-headed the UK flyweight scene to stardom in recent times.
Full Undercard Results:
- Sunny Edwards def. by Galal Yafai (TKO 6/12) for the interim WBC flyweight title
- Conah Walker def. Lewis Ritson (UD 10); Welterweights
- Kieron Conway def. Ryan Kelly (SD 12) to win the vacant Commonwealth middleweight title
- Cameron Vuong def. Gavin Gwynne (UD 10); Lightweights
- Troy Jones def. Michael Stephenson (UD 10) for the English light heavyweight title
- Callum Smith def. Carlos Galvan (TKO 5/8); Light Heavyweights
- Ibraheem Sulaimaan def. Marvin Solano (KO 2/6); Super Featherweights
UFC Fight Pass: Cage Warriors 181 Newcastle Full Review
