Promoter Eddie Hearn got emotional, reacting to tenth round knockout loss IBF flyweight champion Sunny Edwards (20-1, 4 KOs) suffered at the hands of unbeaten WBO champ Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KOs) in their war on Saturday night at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Edwards put up a good fight, battling the bigger & more powerful Rodriguez tooth and nail, dealing an eye injury from the second round. The fight unraveled in the ninth when Rodriguez landed a left that put Sunny down. Sunny’s corner wisely stopped the fight at the end of the ninth.
After the fight, Sunny, with his left eye cut & swollen, thanked Hearn and told him he was grateful and would be coming back. After Sunny walked away, a teary-eyed Hearn said that the media and fans need to give him the respect he deserves for this fight and what he will be going through, dealing with the defeat.
Ultimately, the size, power, youth, and incredible talent of Bam Rodriguez was too much for Sunny. You could see from the second round that Bam was too strong and big for Sunny. His only chance of winning would have been to stay on the move, but he admitted that he couldn’t because Bam was good at cutting off the ring.
Bam was throwing jabs and power shots to Sunny’s body, making it impossible for him to move around the ring because he couldn’t brace for those shots when he was moving.
The IBF & WBO titles that Bam has will be vacated by him, as he plans on returning to 115. Sunny can go after one of those belts to become champion again at some point.
Edwards insists he’ll be back
Sunny Edwards: “I just want to say thanks for the opportunity, thanks for the event. I look forward to coming back,” Edwards said to iFL TV, talking to Eddie Hearn following his loss to Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez on Saturday night.
Eddie Hearn: “I’m proud of you because without you, we wouldn’t have gotten that fight tonight. You ended up having the fight that’s probably not the best fight for you, but it’s the fight that showed that you have plenty of an arsenal.
“You could see it in the pocket with you trading. Everyone is proud of you. Thank you for boxing for giving us that fight.”
Edwards: “No, no. I’m grateful of being part of an event. When I spoke to you, Eddie, and you went, ‘What weight are you going to do? And I went, ‘Light flyweight.’ And you went, ‘What are you going to do fight for 1500 pounds for a world title?’ You don’t remember that, but I do.
“But to be part of a special event. Yeah, I came up second best today, but I never dreamed as a flyweight that I would get something like that, especially not in America. I’m grateful to be a part of it. I know I’ll be back. There’s a lot of options there.”
Hearn: “Get those belts back. Make sure you support him, Sunny Edwards. He’ll have a few tough weeks ahead, so I feel we should give him the respect he deserves for giving us a great fight. He showed plenty of bottle in there, something that a lot of people couldn’t do, me included.
“We need to thank both guys because they could cruise through the other champions but decided to fight each other. It was just a magical night. When you do the pound-for-pound list, you must have Bam on your list. We also forget that he’s 23-years-old. It’s just incredible.
“When he won a title at 115. Don’t forget this guy [Bam] was a light flyweight [108]. That’s what he was. Then he said, ‘I want to go back to flyweight and become a two-division champion.’ He won the title, and unified the title. Now he’s talking about going back to 115 to fight Gallo Estrada.
“It’s a massive fight. I could see him going to bantamweight. These guys are going to fluctuate between divisions. Chocolatito is there. Obviously, he’s friendly with Mr. Honda. That’s a difficult fight to make. I think Gallo Estrada could be the one, or Julio Cesar Martinez and Dalakian. He could go through those other champions and become undisputed.”
