By Dan Ambrose: A flyweight two-belt unification match between WBC champion Julio Cesar Martinez and IBF champion Sunny Edwards is in the works for October, according to promoter Eddie Hearn.
There had been talks of Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez dropping down from 115 to challenge Martinez (18-2, 14 KOs) for his WBF 112-lb title, but Hearn says he would like to set up a unification between Julio and IBF champion Edwards (18-0, 4 KOs) instead.
It’s an excellent fight between the 26-year-old Sunny and Martinez, as there would be an element of revenge. Julio Cesar Martinez defeated Sunny’s older brother, former WBC flyweight champion Charlie Edwards, by a third-round knockout in August 2019 in London.
Martinez wiped out Charlie, smashing him to pieces. To add insult to injury, Martinez landed a shot to the body of Charlie when he was down on the canvas in the third.
Since that loss, Charlo’s once-promising career has slowed to a crawl, with him fighting only twice and accomplishing nothing.
It’s fair to say that if Sunny can defeat Martinez, it would restore some of the sparkles to the Edwards’ name.
“We’re talking to Sunny Edwards’ team about the Julio Cesar Martinez unification,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV. “I think that’s the proper fight. That’s a big fight.
It makes sense for Hearn to make the Martinez-Edwards fight rather than feeding Martinez to Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, as previously discussed. Rodriguez and Edwards have more to gain in fighting each other at this stage.
Martinez, 27, is coming off an embarrassingly one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss to Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez last March in San Diego, California. He needs to be matched against someone he would have a chance of beating.
Hearn matching Bam Rodriguez against Martinez would be a bad idea because it would spoil Julio Cesar’s career. After all, he’s not skilled enough to defeat a fighter like him.
Bam is also one of those fighters who arguably fights out of his weight class. When he rehydrates for his fights, he looks like a full-blown lightweight, which gives him an advantage.
Being young at 22 allows Bam Rodriguez to move between different weight classes effortlessly. Before long, we could see him fighting at 118, 122, 126, and 130.
As big as he is, Bam Rodriguez could easily be competing right now at lightweight with guys like Devin Haney, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, and Vasyl Lomachenko.
“Bam is at super flyweight but can mix it up between the weights. Hopefully, we can make Martinez against Sunny Edwards unification for October,” said Hearn.
Sunny has looked good lately, beating Muhammad Waseem, Jayson Mama, and Moruti Mthalane. It’ll be more demanding for Sunny to mix it up with Martinez because he can punch, and he’s terrific when he’s at the top of his game.
Martinez pulled out of his rescheduled rematch last month against McWilliams Arroyo. The two were supposed to fight on June 25th, but Martinez pulled out three days before on June 22nd due to an illness.
