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Ringside Report Takes a Closer Look at The Edwards Brothers Sunny and Charlie – Boxing News

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By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Brothers in boxing.

As the Charlo brothers are getting ready for world defenses tonight, it’s an oft quoted phrase in the media right now, often also trotted out when we lose a boxer in his fight for life. But it’s also a very well-worn understandable phrase in the UK when we are talking about real boxers who are real brothers. We had the Cooper brothers, one of whom, tried to take a world title off Ali, the Smith brothers, one of whom is a current holder of the Mohamad Ali trophy, of course the infamous Kray twins who had a connection to the boxing game as well as the McDonald brothers, both of whom have been world champions. As I am a Scot and love the wee guy, we also currently have Sunny and Charlie – the Edwards’ boys.

If we start with the youngest, we have Sunny “Showtime” Edwards, 15-0, 4 KO’s who has held amateur medals, boxing for England; gold in 2015 and silver in 2016 at light flyweight at the English National Championships. He turned professional in Estepona, Spain when he beat Sergey Tasimov on the 24th September 2016. Less than a month later I saw him in Glasgow as he beat another journeyman in Brett Fidoe in Glasgow. It may have just been a four round points win but you got the impression that this was a fighter going places.

One of the issues with smaller fighters is the depth of numbers in the game and it was in only his sixth fight that he faced an unbeaten Ross Murray on the 27th November 2017 in London; on the line was the WBO European super flyweight belt. Murray was stopped in the fourth round as Edwards was declared the worthy winner.

It was a belt he kept when he defended it against Ryan Farrag with a shutout 10 round win at York Hall on the 26th October 2018. If having fewer quality opponents in the game was to hamper anyone, it was a rise that this Edwards was willing to climb at his own pace as he went on to bag the vacant WBO international super flyweight title on 15th December 2018 in Essex against Junior Granados; Granados had Edwards on the canvass in the second but was unable to stop Edwards steamrolling a massive points win by the end of the fight.

A further defense of his European title came on the 27th April 2019 at the Wembley Arena when he stopped Pedro Matos in the eighth. The progress towards a world title took a bit of a turn when he fought for the IBF international super flyweight title on the 13th July 2019 against Hiram Gallardo and won again by a stunning margin – 99-90 on all three cards. Bucking the trend of most fighters who go up in weight as they progress in years, Edwards had dropped down. It was widely reported at the time that he commented, “We dropped down to flyweight because it’s looking like I’m more likely to get a world title shot, but it is what it is”.

On the 14th September last year against Rosendo Hugo Guarneros in the legendary venue of York Hall, Edwards left with the IBF international and WBO intercontinental flyweight belts. Then, in December he got his hands on the British crown as he won on points against Marcel Braithwaite at the Copper Box Arena. He had to get up off the floor in the seventh and contend with a cut in the eighth to do it.

He was also one of the lockdown stars who came back without an audience and posted another impressive win against Thomas Essomba on points at the BT Studio. It was impressive because, forced to fight on his back foot, Edwards managed to so do with little issue or problems, to defend his IBF international title. Afterwards, Edwards was customarily bullish as he commented, “He was a very tough lad. He was a two-time Olympian, I volunteered at the Olympics he boxed Paddy Barnes in. I was there sat front row, so I have known about Thomas Essomba since I was 15-16. It was a pleasure to be sharing a ring with someone like that. Really I am a flyweight. I am boxing at super-flyweight for the opportunities. I want world titles and I want them at flyweight, because really Thomas Essomba was a boiled-down bantamweight, he was massive in there compared to me. I am happy with that.”

Surely a world title shot MUST be just round the corner and Mrs. Edwards will have to get a bigger mantelpiece for the belts?

Elder brother Charlie Edwards, 15-1, 6 KO’s,meanwhile has the world title. As an amateur he also represented England and achieved a European gold medal at light flyweight from the 2011 European Championships in Ankara. There were also two golds from Great Britain championships and two golds from English National Championships to add to the impressive collection.

Being the elder brother, Charlie turned over sooner and made his professional debut the year before his brother. At the 02 he stopped Craig Derbyshire, then he returned to pick up the English title against Louis Norman in the same venue and went on a winning streak that saw him defend his English title against Phil Smith by stoppage in the sixth, then a shutout victory for the WBC international title against Luke Wilton, winning the British title in 2017 on points in Glasgow against Iain Butcher, taking the WBA continental belt against Anthony Nelson in Newcastle by third round stoppage, that by 2018 meant he was ranked well enough to take on Cristofer Rosales for the WBC flyweight title. He went into that fight with a 13-1 record. The sole defeat was against John Riel Casimero in 2016, the year after going professional, for the IBF title.
In his fight against Rosales he was to shock and stun the world with a win by a wide points margin on all three judge’s cards when he was only ranked number 15 by the WBC; whoever thought it would be an easy night for the champion clearly did not do their homework.
Charlie was to defend his title on the 31st August 2019 when the world was watching and waiting for the top of the bill clash between Lomachenko and England’s Luke Campbell. His opponent was Julio Cesar Martinez. Martinez stopped Edwards in the third round and then in a bizarre intervention, the WBC president, Mauricio Sulaiman, who was ringside, ruled the fight a no contest because Martinez hit Edwards when Edwards was down on the floor, thus contributing to his inability to get up and get back in the contest. An immediate rematch was ordered but Edwards vacated in October last year because, unlike his brother, he was struggling to get down to flyweight. It was not an easy decision.

In an astonishingly frank and open interview posted online, Edwards was to admit that he was mentally ‘killed’ and ‘crucified’ after vacating the WBC flyweight title. He told talkSport, “I was battling with my own emotions and my own thought process to want to stay and prove a point and make this weight one more time. I would have rather gone out on my shield. It wasn’t my fault the controversy happened and things like that. But the biggest thing that was the hardest was making the decision to have to vacate. I sought professional advice and they really advised me strongly not to make that weight again because it could have been really severely bad for my health.”

As to the future, both brothers have a dream as elder brother Charlie outlined in the same interview, “My dream has always been to fight on a professional card with my brother and we’re both reaching world title fights. So imagine making history with my own brother for British boxing, the two of us winning world titles on the same card. It would be phenomenal. We’ve always dreamt of that and I’m a big believer in you’ve got to set your vision, believe in it and you’ll achieve it. That’s where we’re at in our careers.”
In a week’s time Charlie will be back out fighting, in the same weekend as the Charlos. The Charlos shall be both fighting for a world title on the same bill. One day that dream might float over a pond and find itself with the two Edwards’ brothers as their wish deserves to come true…

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