By Barry Holbrook: IBF flyweight champion Sunny Edwards (18-0, 4 KOs) took challenger Muhammad Wassem (12-2, 8 KOs) to school on Saturday night winning a wide 12 round unanimous decision at the Duty Free Tennis Stadium in Dubai.
Waseem had a tough time, getting outboxed and two critical points deducted. The judges’ scores were as follows: 115-111, 116-110, and 115-111.
With the victory for Edwards, he’s now in a position to take on WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez in a unification fight this year.
Rey Martinez still needs to successfully defend his WBC 112-lb title against WBC mandatory challenger McWilliams Arroyo in a rematch before they can meet up.
Martinez (18-2, 14 KOs) is required to face McWilliams again after their fight last November was ruled a three-round no contest after Arroyo was injured from a clash of heads in the third round and couldn’t continue.
Regis Prograis stops Tyrone McKenna
In the chief support fight on the Edwards vs. Waseem card tonight, former WBA 140-lb champion Regis Prograis (27-1, 23 KOs) defeated #17 WBC Tyrone McKenna (22-3-1, 6 KOs0 by a sixth-round stoppage in a WBC light welterweight title eliminator.
The much bigger puncher Progais knocked the 32-year-old McKenna down in round two and continued to hit him at will with shots until the contest was halted in the sixth. The time of the stoppage was at 1:40 of round six.
Prograis opens up McKenna bad!#ProbellumEvolution pic.twitter.com/lnGB7Hcyhg
— Probellum (@probellum) March 19, 2022
Prograis picked out McKenna himself for this fight after the two had words on social media. While boxing fans wanted to see Prograis take on a better opponent, he opted to face McKenna, who had recently lost to Ohara Davies.
Tonight’s win for Prograis would have meant more if he’d faced a better opponent than McKenna, but this is who he wanted. That’s the criticism boxing fans have about Prograis.
Ever since his loss to Josh Taylor in 2019, he’s been playing it safe fighting Ivan Redkach, Juan Heraldez, and now McKenna. That defeat for Prograis might have shaken his confidence to the core, causing him to back off from fighting top-tier opposition ever since.
With the win, Prograis is now the WBC 140-lb mandatory challenger to champion Josh Taylor. However, Taylor is likely to vacate all four of his titles and move up to 147 following his recent nail-biter victory over Jack Catterall last month.
If Taylor vacates, Prograis will take on #2 WBC for the vacant WBC light welterweight title.
Former IBF super bantamweight champion TJ Doheny (21-3, 17 KOs) snapped his two-fight losing streak with a second-round stoppage win over journeyman Cesar Juarez (27-11, 20 KOs).