As soon as Galal Yafai had beaten, and beaten up Sunny Edwards in their flyweight fight on Saturday night, talk began regarding the possibility of Yafai, who won the WBC interim title at flyweight, going up and engaging in a massive fight with super-flyweight champ Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. Yafai’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, said that after watching Yafai do a job on Edwards for a few rounds, he was thinking to himself how awesome a fight between Bam and Yafai could be in a couple of years or so.
But now, in speaking with the George Groves Boxing Club, Yafai, 9-0(7), said it would be “silly” for him to move up to 115 pounds to face “the best guy” at super-flyweight when he makes 112 pounds easily. Yafai said the fight is not one he is looking at right now, or maybe ever.
“Bam is a weight above me, number one. He’s a two-weight world champion. He’s in the pound-for-pound rankings – now here’s me,” Yafai said. “I’m nine fights in. I’m the weight below. I’m 31, which I’m probably not gonna go up because I make the weight really easy. I make flyweight easy. For me to really go up – it would be silly, really, because I’m fighting the best guy at the weight, who is massive compared to me. The only reason I’d be fighting him is for a lot of money. I ain’t gotta live off Bam Rodriguez’s name. I’m Olympic champion.”
As with Bam saying he is too small, at least right now, for Naoya Inoue, this is a fight so many people have called and are calling for. Yafai is being realistic about him moving up to fight Bam. Good on Yafai for not just looking for the big money. Who knows, some months from now, maybe Yafai will change his mind and feel that he can move up and challenge Rodriguez, but for now, it seems Yafai feels he has plenty to keep him busy at flyweight.
Unification fights with Kenshiro Teraji, maybe in Japan, would be massive for the Birmingham man, and it would be a huge achievement if Yafai could scoop up all the belts at 112 pounds. Yafai’s natural weight class is flyweight, and he isn’t in any rush to try and force things by adding on those three extra pounds. Not right now, anyway.
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