Have you set goals for 2020?
Iโve got a few things I want to do. Iโd love to fight in America. Iโd love to fight over in Dubai and Iโd love to become a two-weight world champion, of course.
When are you boxing next?
Iโm back out in April on an MTK show at York Hall. Iโm currently not in contract with Matchroom. [As he considers options he still] wanted to get out, get back in the ring, get back to winning ways and I didnโt want to be stalled or anything. Iโve been advised not to jump into something straightaway. Now having become a world champion thereโs going to be more people that want to work with me and thereโs already offers there on the table. I do believe Eddie [Hearn] still does want to work with me, Iโve been told.
I need a fight date, I need something to prepare myself for and put my head into.
‘Iโd rather not achieve anything than achieve something that would be false. Youโd know deep down that you havenโt achieved anything at all’
Charlie Edwards
Itโs only going to be a pound under bantamweight, to keep my world ranking, in the super-flyweight Iโm ranked number three in the world with the WBC.
Then itโs about seeing what offer works best for me, the career path and the money more than anything. Iโve become a world champion. Now itโs time to secure my future.
How did you feel seeing Julio Cesar Martinez go on to fight for the title you vacated?
Whatever happens in this sport of boxing, at the end of the day, it is strictly business. The longer Iโve been in this sport, Iโve learned along the way that it is a conveyor belt kind of money-making avenue. So I couldnโt put too much emotion into it. To be fair I watched him against [Cristofer] Rosales and heโs a great fighter.
I won the first two rounds outboxing him [Martinez], but I just could keep him off. [Edwardsโ world title fight with Martinez was ruled a no contest eventually, after the Mexican struck Edwards while he was on the deck.] Really it shows, Iโm a great boxer, donโt be too hard on yourself. What he done to Rosales was crazy. He walked him down and bullied him. That never ever happens to Rosales. It shows what a great fighter he is, heโs with the Canelo camp. Heโs probably with one of the best teams in the sport of boxing right now. It hurt that I had to give the title up [because he needed to move up in weight]. We might meet again and next time we meet again in a higher weight division where Iโm in my prime at that weight division and Iโm at my strongest, then who knows? That could be another legacy sort of fight.
You donโt know whatโs in the future. All I can do is give him props. Heโs a great fighter.
He failed a test for clenbuterol, but gets to be cleared by the WBC, fight for a world title, work with Eddie Hearn again, how does that sit with you?
It hurts because I know how bad I was on the scales and my life was on the line. And thatโs the reason why I moved up.
Later on, it comes out about the drugs, it hurt, of course it hurt. But at the end of the day, it is what it is. Boxingโs the most corrupt sport in history. It has been for years and years and years. Thereโs no point grumbling over it. Thereโs no point. Me having negative energy towards it, all thatโs going to do is kill my own happiness with the sport and make me not want to do it. So it is what it is. I know Iโm clean. I know I do everything right. Thatโs all I can ask of myself.
So many more people are failing drug tests left, right and centreโฆ If they want to make their money, theyโll do it at all costs. Itโs sad but itโs what weโre involved in.
After a while do boxers who are doing the right thing start thinking to themselves if you canโt beat them, join them?
Lately itโs been drug test after drug test failedโฆ They get two fights back, three fights back. They start winning again and everyoneโs forgotten about it. Itโs crazy. The thing is, nothing in life is fair. So you canโt expect things to be fair in sport either.
As a fighter is it easy to resist that temptation?
I think it comes down to the person. It comes down to the reason why theyโre doing it, what they want to achieve out of the sport. What their goals and aims are.
I could not for the life of me do that. Because it would take everything Iโve work for from the age of 11 away from me and all the achievements Iโve earned, it would be false. Iโd rather not achieve anything than achieve something that would be false.
Youโd know deep down that you havenโt achieved anything at all.