Charlie Edwards will be taking on a couple of familiar faces when he takes on Thomas Essomba for the European bantamweight title on Friday night.
Edwards (19-1 7 KOs) knows Essomba (13-8-1, 4 KOs) inside-out. He first became aware of him on the International amateur scene when both tried to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. Essomba made it, Edwards didn’t. Back in 2020, he had cause to study the Cameroonian-born fighter more closely when he boxed his brother, Sunny – more of whom later – and he has had his eyes on Essomba’s belt for the best part of a year.
Still, back when Edwards was competing with the world’s best at 112 pounds, the tough, awkward Essomba was battling away at domestic title level, winning some but losing more and taking every opportunity he could between flyweight and bantamweight.
Back then, a fight between the two would have been a complete non-starter, but times have changed. Edwards is desperate to re-establish himself after a prolonged spell in the boxing wilderness, while Essomba, at 36, will be defending his European title for the second time and is currently in the form of his life.
A fight that once made no sense suddenly makes all the sense in the world.
“He’s always been a good fighter. You don’t get into two Olympics without being a good fighter,” Edwards told BoxingScene.
“The thing is, with Thomas, he’s always been a good fighter. He’s come up against it hard. Records are for DJs. It hasn’t always gone his way. He’s always been in the away corner. Had he had a prospect’s journey, maybe things would have been a bit different for him. Had he got wind blown up his ass by the promoters of the day he could have been really made into something. I don’t take none of that for granted.
“I know he’s a good fighter. I know the challenges and threats; what he does well and what I need to watch out for. But I’m prepared for absolutely every last bit of Thomas. I’ve studied him now for 10 months to a year. He’s someone I wanted to take out.
“It’s always something that was going to come. He’s got something that I need and I want to take him out.”
Sunny Edwards, Charlie’s brother and a former IBF flyweight champion, outpointed Essomba in a true coming of age fight back in 2020. Now, Sunny happens to manage Essomba and hand-picked the fight with his brother, believing that it offers his client the best risk/reward ratio at this stage of his career,
The peculiarity is manna from heaven for boxing’s conflict-hunting videographers and will dominate many lines of questioning this week. Edwards could allow himself to become distracted and annoyed by the sideline but having been starved of attention for so long, he has decided to embrace the attention, reasoning that it will mean more people tune in to witness the show he is preparing to put on on Friday night.
“Sunny’s my brother. He’s always been my brother.
“We’ve always been competitive through our years and years and years of being brought up. Our dad played us off one against another. When you think about it, that’s what we’ve known growing up,” Edwards said.
“It was like, ‘You get everything easy. You’re dumb, and you have to work really hard.’ That’s why we’re so chalk and cheese.
“It’s always been that way growing up. This is no different. It is what it is.
“It’s the sport of boxing. I’m grateful for it because it adds more eyes to the sport, and I need more eyes to it right now, especially with being so inactive and quiet.
“It brings the eyes. It brings the attention. It makes a good fight an even bigger fight and it puts the pressure on. When I have pressure against me, pressure forms diamonds, and I thrive off that.
“I’m buzzing about it, so I’m grateful.”
John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X @John_Evans79
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