By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn seemed less animated & amped up than usual last Saturday night after watching his recent Matchroom addition Sunny Edwards successfully defend his IBF flyweight title against Andes Campos at the OVO Arena in London.
You could read Hearn’s face quite easily at the press conference. The disappointment was impossible to miss, and the words that he saying didn’t match the look on his face. The atmosphere at the post-fight press conference was like a funeral.
Hearn might have been thinking, ‘What in the world did I get myself into? How do I get out of this mess? I know. I’ll throw Sunny Edwards in with Jesse ‘Bam’ Edwards and watch him get blasted to meteor dust. Then I’ll quit him like a bad habit.’
Leading up to the fight, Hearn bragged nonstop about how great Sunny (20-0, 4 KOs) was, claiming that he was the pound-for-pound #1 fighter in British boxing.
The way Hearn was boasting about the talent of Edwards, you expect to have seen an incredible talent, a fighter that could walk on water.
When fans finally got to see what Hearn had been crowing about, they saw the 27-year-old Edwards taking severe punishment for seven rounds from the stronger, more entertaining Chilean fighter Campos (15-1, 4 KOs).
With things looking dire, Edwards got on his bike and spoiled for the last four rounds, running around the ring from round 9 to 12, boring the Wembley Arena crowd, who collectively were as quiet as church mice.
When it was over, Edward was given a wide twelve round unanimous decision by the scores 117-111, 117-111, and 117-111.
On social media, fans not only disagreed with those ridiculous scores, but they also felt Campos was should have been given the win. Charles Brun agrees.
Campos landed the harder, cleaner shots and was the aggressor in all twelve rounds. He appeared to win 116-112 [8-4] but was on the receiving end of a royally bad decision.
“Yeah, I do. I think he’s one of the most talented fighters in Brit. I said that I thought he might be the best British world champion. I think he’s still got to prove it at the elite level,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing King Media when asked if he still believes Sunny Edwards is the best fighter in the UK after his performance against Andres Campos last Saturday.
“For six rounds, he looked phenomenal tonight. He started giving a few rounds away, a bit sloppy. I would have liked to see him go through the gears, but you’re going to see the best of him against ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, Julio Cesar Martinez, and I think after that performance, I think they might be a little bit keener to face him.
“He just got back to training, and Robert Garcia didn’t want him to come because he’s just got back in the gym after resting up his jaw,” said Hearn when asked why ‘Bam’ Rodriguez wasn’t at the Edwards vs. Campos fight last Saturday night.
“I think he wants to get a deal in place as well before he starts flying over and getting in his face. That’s one of the priorities for this week or the next week to lock in that fight. I’d like to lock it in nice and early so we can really have something to look forward to towards the end of the year.
“Sunny’s deals done. In Sunny Edwards’s contract, all the money is there for all those fights. So it’s really down to everybody else. Listen, they deserve big money for that fight. It’s a proper fight, and we’ll negotiate those fights and see who wants it first,” said Hearn.
“I thought it was good. I think if you’re a boxing purist, you love it,” said Hearn to International Boxing News about Sunny Edwards’ performance against Campos. “If you’re a casual, after six rounds, you look at it and going, ‘This kid’s really good, but you want him to go through the gears.’
“You always want someone who’s dominating to go on and stop someone. It doesn’t always happen in a flyweight division. I thought it was a bit sloppy. I thought he got outworked in a few rounds in there tonight.
“That might help him get that fight. I think if you’re Jesse Rodriguez or your Julio Cesar Martinez, you’re looking at him, thinking, ‘I fancy that fight,’ and hopefully, they sign on the dotted line.
“I’d like to do it in America on the West Coast, actually. I know that making Sunny travel is, obviously, in ‘Bam’ Rodriguez’s favor, but I wouldn’t like to do it in San Antonio.
“I think we should do that on the west coast. I think it’s a great fight, a great night of boxing we can create there, and he’s ready now. It has to be a unification for the next one,” said Hearn about Sunny.
