The most important fight of Sunny Edwards’ life was supposed to be when he won his flyweight world title. Last April, the self-proclaimed “little scruff from Croydon” was a clear underdog against Moruti Mthalane, the veteran champion used to grinding his opponents into submission with a ceaseless stalking pressure. Edwards’ performance that night was a masterclass, calming the storm with impervious skill and movement, and as he held his IBF belt aloft in the centre of the ring afterwards, all those outlandish dreams he’d set as a child had been realised.
It might yet be the bout that defines Edwards, who defends his title for a second time this weekend, but what’s most important isn’t always decided by a material trophy. Sometimes, it’s the pivot that has made it all possible, the sliding doors moment that irrevocably changes a career, putting in on a path to legend or leaving it as a trail of what-ifs. For Edwards, that moment came in 2015. A few months earlier, shortly after turning 18 years old, he packed his bags and uprooted to Sheffield to train at the Steel City Gym ahead of his first senior national championships.
