Sunny Edwards made a fourth consecutive victory of his IBF flyweight world title against Andres Campos last night at Wembley Arena, London. However, the talk all week had been centered around his coming together with Matchroom and Eddie Hearn in the hope of getting the 112 pound division unified with Jesse Rodriguez or Julio Cesar Martinez. Statement was demanded from Edwards prior to his defense in the nation's capital, largely due to the little information on Campos coming from Chile.
Campos turned in a spirited performance drawing the champion into a serious fight which excited the DAZN commentary ringside. The scorecards of 117-111 from all three judges were not debated by many from where I was sitting. But we did see an Edwards (20-0, 4KOs) that was ready to trade and happy to engage with the aggressive Chilean for big portions of the fight.
“Err, I don’t know” Edwards said in response as to whether a new promoter has prompted a change in style. “I do enjoy actually enjoy having a fight, people see me boxing and boxing and it might be frustrating for the people who want me to lose but at the same time that becomes somewhat monotonous for me and it gets boring for me that I have to do that. Like I said, I trained with Grant [Smith] since I was 18 years, I moved to Sheffield for University and Team GB originally. I really linked up with Grant, from 18 to 27 we are still here nine years later still going strong. I trust him with my whole career, I know if I ever need saving, he is the man to do it. I know he has got his heart and soul in there with me, it would be stupid for me to not trust his word. Just like he said in the corner. He counted the rounds they were scoring against me, he looked at the scorecards after and he was bang on with every single one.”
Eddie Hearn revealed after the fight that a unification with Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez is “very close” and hopes to have a deal “wrapped up by the end of this week.” The division currently has four separate belt holders, a unification with at least one of them should be something his new promoters would be able to make happen. On last night’s performance many will want to see more from Edwards if he is to be successful against the fellow champions. Progression is more than achievable at just 27 years old.
“I don’t know about add, maybe just give them less chances and stay more switched on.” Edwards responded when asked if he needs to add anything extra to beat his fellow champions. “But if the danger is higher my adrenaline goes up, my IQ goes up, everything goes up. The ante is up, so I make sure I don’t make mistakes, I don’t walk in with those silly shots. You know, I’m dropping my hands and offering my chin, and he wasn't really taking it. That be said, I was trying to walk him onto a few shots, but he showed that he was really tough in there. You know, he showed he could probably give as good as he could get but he couldn’t get nowhere near enough to the target to become world champion.”
