World IBF champion Sunny Edwards on proving he is the best, fighting Galal Yafai and unifying flyweight division

2 years ago 44

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The most skilled boxer, pound-for-pound, in Britain might just be an 8st, 5ft 3in stylist from Croydon.

Sunny Edwards certainly thinks he is. "Technically, almost definitely," he said of himself. "Maybe blowing my own trumpet but technically I'm a nightmare."

So far in his career, IBF flyweight champion Edwards has won almost all his fights well and widely. Saturday night was no different as he outpointed Muhammed Waseem.

"In all my fights that have gone the distance, which is pretty much every single one of them, I've never had one judge score a fight against me. Every one's been a unanimous decision, every one's usually very wide," he said.

"Why do you think I'm so confident? What evidence have I been given, in sparring as well, to suggest that anyone I'm ever in the ring with has surpassed my level? People get close to it, but no one ever blows me out of the water."

Edwards, 26, has a particular style to his boxing. He moves deftly on his feet, using sharp reactions to dodge his opponent's shots and land his own quick counter-punches.

Edwards has shown that he can sustain that style for the full 12 rounds of a championship fight.

"I'm very hard to beat," he said. "I'm not even easy to hit let alone beat. You don't have much of a chance if I don't let you."

But he's been working on something different too. A new style.

"I've got a lot to my toolbox and I keep showing them one thing," he said. "I'm going through camps sparring a style different to what I'm fighting. Because I've mastered the hit-and-not-get hit for 12 rounds.

"People say that my sparring is the most intense sparring they've ever seen. I have wars in my spars. I have wars in my spars so I can go and have easy fights."

He's been getting good people in for those spars. Edwards has been doing rounds with Galal Yafai, the Olympic flyweight gold medallist who has just turned professional.

Given that one day in the not too distant future Yafai will want to challenge Edwards for his world title, that is an unusual move.

"Not for me," Edwards insisted. "I don't mind him having a look me and I'm sure he doesn't mind me having a look at him.

"He drags the fight out of you because of his relentless pressure.

"I'll be perfectly real, I want Galal to do as good and look as good as possible and if I can do anything, say anything, spar anything to help him achieve that level that I want him and expect him to get to, I will do it. Because he's like my return on investment right now."

Edwards knows a fight between the two of them would be a big event.

"The moment that he wants it, he can have it," he said.

"The moment Olympic gold medallist Galal, 'Golden Boy' Galal, wants to fight humble little old me that lost in the ABA final second time round and wasn't ever good enough to get sent anywhere for England [as an amateur] and always the third pick on GB, even though I knew I was the best then, I don't care.

"I'll fight anyone. Anyone that makes sense, I'll fight."

Next Edwards wants to box Julio Cesar Martinez, the Mexican who now holds the WBC belt at flyweight.

They have some history. Edwards' older brother Charlie was a world champion who boxed Martinez in 2019.

The Mexican hurt and dropped him early on only for their bout to be ruled a no contest once Martinez had levelled him with an illegal blow while Charlie was on his knees.

Sunny, confident he can defuse the threat Martinez poses, wouldn't mind settling that score.

"Getting revenge is one thing but I remember that my brother was weight drained for that," he said.

"Luckily I've got my brother to look at because I've seen the times when he's really believed in himself, I've seen the result of it and I've also seen the times when he's not believed in himself and I've seen the result of that too."

His vision is to unify titles in his division before moving up through the weights. Eventually he'll be going after all the big-name super-flyweights.

"I think I'm going to have a fun career. Even if sometimes I might bite off a little bit more than I can chew. I probably will at times because I believe in myself that much," Edwards said.

"I really want to see how great I am, because I don't know.

"But right now with everything that's laid out in front of me, how easy I found it to get to this point, everything I do in sparring, and how within myself everything seems to get to this level that I'm at right now, I could potentially be on for ridiculous greatness.

"I'm only going to find that out if I test it. What's the point of playing it safe?

"Try to be the best and go up weights and fight the best of the best. I can fall short and still come back.

"I don't know how great I am. I just know I'm really very good."

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