By Jake Tiernan: A motivated-looking IBF flyweight champion Sunny Edwards showed that he means business by knocking off the cap of challenger Andres Campos during their face-off on Wednesday ahead of their contest this Saturday night at the OVO Arena in Wembley.
The smiling 26-year-old Campos (15-0, 4 KOs), who comes from Chile, didn’t flinch when Edwards (19-0, 4 KOs) knocked his cap off during their head-to-head for their main event on DAZN.
If the idea was for Sunny to send shivers down Campos’ spine, it didn’t work. Edwards, 27, isn’t a big enough puncher to put the scare into Campos by trying to intimidate him.
Sunny’s promoter Eddie Hearn likes his reckless behavior, and he’s already planning his next bout, which he hopes will be against WBO 112-lb champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez in November or December.
If Edwards beats the 23-year-old ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, Hearns to match him against WBC champion Julio Cesar Martinez.
Edwards has recent wins over Felix Alvarado, Muhammad Waseem, Jayson Mama, Moruti Mthalane, and Thomas Essomba. Campos is a step down in competition from the guys Edwards has been fighting recently.
It’s unclear whether this was all Hearn could get or if he’s trying to make Sunny look like a killer by matching him against fringe-level opposition to help impress the casuals who don’t know a carefully planned mismatch when they see one.
“This kid Sunny Edwards, there’s something about him, I love a fighter with extreme confidence and belief,” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing about IBF flyweight champion Sunny Edwards, who defends against Andres Campos this Saturday night.
“I mean, I love a fighter with bundles of ability, but this guy, he don’t care. I mean, he don’t care what he says. You can’t control him. Sometimes people say to me, You’re gonna have a word with Sunny.’ About that, I said, ‘No, absolutely not. He’s on his own. I’ll support him all the way unless he says something that I don’t agree with, and then I’ll tell you, but he’s his own beast.’
“I think people like it. I think he’s quite refreshing to have someone that isn’t contrived, that isn’t, you know, part of a sort of corporate messaging. He’s just his own person. He’s not interested in having to speak in the right way to build a fan base.
“You love me, or you hate me, and people are split because there’s a
lot of people that don’t like Sunny Edwards, but there are a lot of people that do.
“I don’t really care if you’re talking about Sunny Edwards if you’re watching Sunny Edwards, and if you’re talking about and I’m going to put this out there. He’s arguably Britain’s best pound-for-pound fighter.
“When you look at the quality that we possess as a nation in terms of professional boxing, and that might be a bold statement, and we need to see it, but potentially Britain’s pound-for-pound number one, Sunny Edwards, and potentially the undisputed world champion.
“He needs to look good on Saturday, and I think that we know what’s coming, but you’ve got to back it up. You want to talk with this fire; you want to talk with these words, no problem. I love it, but you’re going to be criticized if the performance ain’t great.
“Special fighters do special things when they need to, and I think he’s one of them.
“It was a close call going into a unification this time around. It was a very fast turnaround for him, seven weeks since he signed with us. He wants Jesse Rodriguez, he wants Julio Cesar Martinez, and he wants Artem Dalakian,” said Hearn.
