By Declan Taylor
Sunny Edwards meets Galal Yafai in Birmingham tonight in a hugely significant all-British flyweight fight. If Sunny can snare win number 22 he will capture the WBC Interim title and march on towards a shot at the world title in 2025. But what have been his best wins so far?
MORUTI MTHALANE, 30.4.2021, London – UD 12
Big-punching South African Moruti had been world champion for nearly three years when he arrived at York Hall, Bethnal Green. But he came unstuck at the famous old venue in what was the fourth defence of his title as Edwards put on a masterclass of boxing and moving to claim a unanimous decision. In fact, so dominant was his victory, that judge Bob Williams even scored him a 120-108 shutout winner.
FELIX ALVARADO, 11.11.2022, Sheffield – UD 12
In the third defence of his IBF flyweight title, Edwards welcomed the highly-experienced Alvarado to his adopted home town of Sheffield and boxed to orders to claim a criminally under-rated victory. Before this fight, Alvarado, who had 33 stoppages in 38 wins, was undefeated in almost a decade and had only lost to Kazuto Ioka and Juan Carlos Reveco but he simply could not handle Edwards, who held off a spirited comeback to win on all three cards.
ADRIAN CURIEL, 29.6.2024, Phoenix – TD 9
Nobody ever likes winning a technical decision but there is no denying the quality of this victory over the world rated Adrian Curiel in Phoenix. This was Edwards’ comeback fight following his stoppage defeat to Bam Rodriguez six months earlier but he looked back to best at times against the Mexican.
A clash of heads opened up a horrific cut on Edwards’ head in the seventh but it did little to knock him out of his rhythm before the fight was stopped in the ninth. All three judges had him clearly up at the time, handing him a victory.
