Sunny Edwards faces another lengthy lay-off despite comprehensively outboxing Mexico’s Adrian Curiel on Saturday night.
Seven months after losing his IBF flyweight belt in a title unification fight with the then-WBO champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, in Glendale, Edwards returned to Arizona and outclassed the former IBF light-flyweight champion.
Edwards went to war with Rodriguez last December, but though he was admired for doing so, he suffered a fractured eye socket and lost his title after a high-class, high-contact battle.
The 28 year-old returned to what he does best against Curiel and looked to be on course for a drama-free victory until an accidental clash of heads opened up a huge vertical gash over his right eye in round six.
The referee Mark Nelson allowed the fight to reach the end of the eighth, but with blood streaming directly into Edwards’ eye and his corner facing the impossible task of stemming the flow, the action was correctly stopped at the start of the ninth round and Edwards awarded a unanimous technical decision.
“I don’t know if the crowd realised what happened there,” said Edwards, 21-1 (4 KOs), who appeared perplexed at the level of booing he received as he spoke afterwards. “The ref, the doctor, stopped the fight. No ask of mine; no decision of mine. I’m more upset than any one of the 10,000 fans in here.
“I thought I won every single round. I thought I was clearly ahead and I thought my opponent was slowing down. I’m more disappointed. I thought I was gonna get him out of there. If not, win absolutely conclusively. I managed to leave Arizona uglier twice in a row and that wasn’t my intention.”
Although Edwards appeared to be in total control of the fight from the opening bell, one of the judges, Chris Wilson, had him only two points ahead at the time of the stoppage. Edwards couldn’t make sense of his 87-85 scorecard.
“The last time I came over here one of the judges didn’t give me any rounds and the ref let him hit me with a thousand low blows so I don’t expect any favours when I come to America but I thought I was way clear,” he said. “Maybe one round I could give him.”
“I don’t know how it looked from the outside. I felt I was cruising. I’ve been asked and asked and asked by everyone around me – my manager; my promoters – ‘Get back to your boxing and show everyone they can’t hit you’. The only shot I thought I got hit with was a head-butt.”
Edwards announced that he has agreed to his end of a fight with Olympic gold medallist, Galal Yafai, 7-0 (5 KOs), but – unless the cut looks worse than it actually is – the severity of the injury seems certain to delay any plans for a meeting between the two Britons back until the end of the year at the earliest.
“Galal, I’m ready,” he said. “I think I’m the biggest name in the flyweight division.
“I beat Galal in the amateurs but the coach who’s still the coach today [Rob McCracken] picked him for [Team Great Britain for the Olympics] anyway.
“I’ve signed the fight.”
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