By Elliot Worsell
IT is often said of heavyweights that rivals are required in order to truly achieve greatness and create a long-lasting legacy and that, when thinking of someone like Muhammad Ali, for example, we will also think of Joe Frazier and George Foreman, without whom he would not be the Muhammad Ali we know today.
If this is true of heavyweights, and it certainly is, it is even more imperative for fighters in the lower weight classes to find their equal – their rival – and hold on to them as though a once-missing child, or a passport. Without them, after all, it will be easier for fans and for history to overlook these boxers, so small are they in stature and so shallow, historically, is the division in which they compete. Without a rival, they can still win belts, of course, but only the connoisseurs of the sport will likely remember their achievements when all is said and done.
This is perhaps both a fear and motivating factor for flyweights Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez and Sunny Edwards, who meet this Saturday (December 16) in Glendale, Arizona. Alone, they are both respected technicians, unbeaten, and seemingly getting better with each passing month. Yet together, which is the arrangement this weekend, Rodriguez and Edwards are suddenly headliners in a big fight, and maybe as close to stardom as either of them are ever going to get.
Indeed, ahead of this fight, rare for a fight at flyweight, there has been a head-to-head filmed and various other promotional pushes to boot. Successful or not (we will see on the night), this in itself marks a breakthrough for both boxers and for the division in which they campaign, one prone to being ignored in favour of focusing on bigger boxers and bigger punchers.
Which is to say, in simply getting this far, Rodriguez and Edwards have to some extent succeeded. They have put the flyweight division on the map, if just for a weekend, and they have also given themselves a chance of becoming something more than just a flyweight belt-holder (for now Rodriguez holds the WBO; Edwards the IBF).
Rodriguez and Edwards in the desert (Ed Mulholland/Matchroom)
Rodriguez, of course, might say he has already surpassed Edwards in terms of achievement and profile and with this it would be hard to argue. He has, unlike Edwards, scored some eye-catching wins at a world-class level, notably a pair of them in 2022, the first against Carlos Cuadras (UD 12) and the second against Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (TKO 8). However, despite this impressive form, Rodriguez is still, at 23, on the rise rather than fully formed. He has shown signs of this in his last two performances, decision wins over Israel Gonzalez and Cristian Hernandez, neither of which saw him dazzle the way he had previously dazzled. In fact, having won the WBC super-flyweight belt in 2022 against the odds and against schedule, there is a feeling now that Rodriguez, down at flyweight, is just getting started as far as legacy goes and that Edwards, arguably the best opponent he could face at flyweight, is a key component in this. Beat him, and become the first fighter to do so, and Rodriguez, 18-0 (11), will have secured a win every bit as impressive as those prior ones against Cuadras and Sor Rungvisai. Beat him and Rodriguez doesn’t just add another belt to his collection. He elevates himself.
As for Edwards, 20-0 (4), the goal is something similar. Although dominant and at ease at a certain level, he still waits for his big, world-level performance, the kind of breakout night Rodriguez enjoyed not once but twice last year. This, for Edwards, will, he hopes, come in the form of Rodriguez on Saturday, but until it does, and until it’s a test Edwards has aced, it is hard to put the Croydon man (based in Sheffield) on the same pedestal. His wins have been mostly emphatic, sure, with him clearly boxing within himself, yet, since dethroning an ageing Moruti Mthalane in 2021, Edwards has offered the impression of someone desperately in need of a challenge to show exactly what he can do. Against the likes of Jayson Mama, Muhammad Waseem, Felix Alvarado, and Andres Campos, he was for the most part able to do whatever he wanted, and save for Alvarado, who made a decent fist of it, the only danger to Edwards was his own complacency and boredom.
Plainly, based on the manner in which he won those fights, there is a high degree of talent and ring intelligence with Edwards, but for this to be truly appreciated he needs an opponent like Rodriguez and fast. After all, at 27, Edwards will be only too aware that the shelf life of a flyweight tends to be short – far shorter than, say, a heavyweight – and that a man of his ability, both boxing and selling, needs to ideally be striking while the iron’s hot.
This could possibly explain one, why he pursued Rodriguez so relentlessly, and two, why he has since been so critical of Rodriguez’s reluctance to promote the fight with the same alacrity as him. Because Edwards knows, being as he is permanently online and in salesman mode, the importance of selling a fight like this and going the extra mile to do so. He knows that whereas heavyweights can get by on their name, their reputation, and the prospect of a fight ending via bone-chilling knockout, he and Rodriguez, or just flyweights in general, are not so lucky. Without promoting this fight, few outside the hardcore will be aware of its existence, much less care enough to watch it. Why? Because, right or wrong, the assumption whenever flyweights meet in a ring is that there will be much in the way of speed and technique but very little in the way of power or drama. The expectation, as a result of this, is that the fight is decided by three scorecards, with the inevitability of this allowing no room for even the possibility of drama.
Rodriguez on the pads (Melina Pizano/Matchroom)
This Edwards won’t need to be told, of course, for he is alert and shrewd enough to know it already. In Rodriguez, too, he will see an opponent whose name is big enough and whose style is appealing enough for a fight against him to mean something more than just another title defence. In Rodriguez, he sees an equal, a rival, and, to put a finer point on it, a business partner. Or at least that was the hope when pursuing this fight and eventually agreeing to it. In reality, though, Rodriguez, once signing the contract, soon retreated from the spotlight rather than bathed in it, leaving Edwards, somewhat perplexed, to do a lot of the flogging on his own, which, depending on your viewpoint, can be seen as either a necessity or desperation.
From a numbers’ perspective, it could be vital, Edwards’ eagerness in this regard. Yet the selling of a fight will ultimately mean very little when the first bell rings and the fight begins. It is at that point numbers matter only in terms of punches landed and rounds accumulated. It is at that point we will discover whether Rodriguez was right to focus more on the fight than the selling of it, or whether Edwards was right, and good enough, to be able to spend his time doing both.
Regardless, when stripped back to what counts, Rodriguez vs. Edwards is without doubt one of the more fascinating fights of this calendar year. Whether fit for casuals or not, a bit like Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence, albeit nowhere near that level, its popularity really doesn’t matter if you enjoy seeing quality boxers try to suss one another out. Forget power, and forget the drama of the heavyweights, here, in the shape of Rodriguez and Edwards, you will be able to see every shot in the book thrown correctly and, moreover, by boxers oblivious to the concept of defeat and therefore utterly confident in their ability to stay unbeaten. That alone makes this fight better than most. That alone is a good enough reason for it to be promoted and watched.
Who knows, it could even be a classic. There has certainly been no shortage of those in the lower weight classes over the years and, let’s not forget, Rodriguez and Edwards have a propensity to please fans, whether it’s by showmanship, as is the case with Edwards, or gritty in-fighting, as we often see from Rodriguez. Together, very much bull and matador, this combination of styles could, at best, produce something spectacular, and, at worst, something intriguing, a fight full of ebb and flow and shifts in momentum.
For Rodriguez, you feel it will be important to gain Edwards’ respect early and make a dent in him. This will be crucial as far as reducing Edwards’ confidence and slowing him down, particularly if Rodriguez, a good body puncher, aims his attacks in that area in the early going. Meanwhile, Edwards, the counterpuncher, will no doubt look to exaggerate his movements and his perceived dominance in order to establish superiority, if even just an illusion of it, from the outset. This he has done in previous title defences and it is hard to imagine him now doing anything different in a fight of such importance. Indeed, the key for Edwards winning is to treat this like any other fight, ensuring he is just as relaxed, calm under fire and fluid as usual.
Should he manage this, it is easy to see a scenario in which he builds a lead and maintains it in spite of a late Rodriguez rally. Yet Rodriguez is a far better opponent than anyone Edwards has faced to date and is unlikely therefore to allow Edwards to simply settle the way he hopes to settle. More experienced than his 23 years would suggest, Rodriguez is a young man accustomed to pressure and, unlike Edwards, has won fights he wasn’t necessarily expected to win.
That said, sometimes when listening to boxers, and when seeing their boasts come to fruition, you get a sense as to their potential and whether they have reached it or not. With Edwards, the feeling that he hasn’t yet reached his is one hard to shake, especially when listening to the conviction in his voice and remembering how comfortable he appeared when beating opponents not good enough to generate any sort of fear in him. This could, it’s true, be the night we finally realise he is better on social media than he is in the company of world-class opposition, but equally, and this is my hunch, this could be the night when we see Edwards flourish and confirm, by way of decision, what many of us have suspected for a while.
On an undercard mostly littered with prospects, there are outings for Peter McGrail, 8-0 (5), who fights Ja’Rico O’Quinn, 16-1-1 (8), over 10 rounds at super-bantamweight, Junaid Bostan, 7-0 (6), who fights Gordie Russ II, 6-0 (6), over eight rounds at super-welterweight, and Galal Yafai, 5-0 (4), who fights Rocco Santomauro, 22-2 (6), over 10 rounds at flyweight. There is also a 12-round super-bantamweight fight between California-based Uzbek Murodjon Akhmadaliev, 11-1 (8), and Kevin Gonzalez, 26-0-1 (13).
