This time last year, Sunny Edwards was on his way to the USA for a unification world-title fight, and Galal Yafai was a five-fight novice. A year can be a long time in the boxing game.
Yafai has now had eight fights without defeat, Edwards lost his world title, and on Saturday night in Birmingham, they meet in the best British flyweight fight for decades.
The brief period in the Eighties when Duke McKenzie, Dave “Boy” McAuley and Charlie Magri shared rings for world and British title fights is a distant memory. Since then, quality fighters like Robbie Regan and Jason Booth have fought for various flyweight belts, but there has not been the same type of fierce rivalry. Edwards and Yafai is a very special fight on many levels. It is the best fight at the weight in Britain for nearly 40 years.
Last December in Phoenix, Arizona, Edwards was stopped in the ninth round by the brilliant Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez in a bold bid to add the WBO title to the IBF version he already held. On the undercard that night, Yafai was having just his sixth fight, but it was another 10-rounder, another step in the fast-track direction. He was chasing Edwards then.
In the summer of 2021, at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, Yafai won the gold medal at flyweight with a series of brilliant wins. His sequence of five victories for the gold might just be the best by a British amateur boxer ever. He turned professional six months later in a hard 10-round fight; the quality of his opponents has remained hard and his progress has been ridiculously fast. Yafai is three years older than Edwards, and his professional career started later, after he decided to remain part of the GB boxing team after the Rio Olympics. However, he is the “kid” in this fight; Edwards loves long, complicated and smart fights. Yafai has not yet been in a fight like the one he will be in on Saturday.
After the gold win, Yafai spent several weeks behind closed doors at a gym in Sheffield, helping Edwards prepare for a world-title fight. There are no real sparring stories, no fake tales of knockouts or domination by either boxer. They met in 2015, when both were amateurs, and Edwards got the split decision; he was more seasoned at that time, but Yafai was about to go on an international sequence that took him to Rio and beyond. Edwards had his eyes on that Rio vest, but he is not bitter.
They are both under immense pressure to win, the type of pressure that always seems to shape a quality domestic fight. Edwards, at just 28, is far from finished, and Yafai, who is 31, is still fresh in the professional business. It’s a grudge match without any unnecessary hate: a real fight, and the winner will also leave the ring with the WBC’s interim flyweight title. The debate over interim belts is tricky and tedious – they are often unnecessary, but they can be upgraded to a full title if the champion retires, moves up in weight, or simply vacates. The belt will just be a piece of ringside jewellery on Saturday night, an extra prize for the winner.
Edwards won the IBF flyweight title in 2021, made four defences and has gone the full 12-round distance seven times. Yafai has trained seven times for the full 10 rounds, but only gone that distance on two occasions. The fight on Saturday is over the championship distance of 12. It obviously suits Edwards, but it is hard to imagine Yafai being tired and floundering in the last two rounds – if the fight goes that far, or remains tight at that point.
This fight is not about baubles, it’s about pride and history. The type of fight at flyweight that has been sorely missed in a glamorous business dominated by so many big men. Sunny and Galal will restore some order and remind people just how good the little men can be when the best meet the best. A year can certainly be a long, long time in boxing.
