Sunny Edwards has revealed the toll of his brutal defeat to boxing sensation Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez on Saturday, suffering a gruesome collection of facial injuries. The Brit (20-1-0) put his IBF flyweight title on the line against WBO king Rodriguez (19-0-0) in Arizona, retiring in his corner after nine rounds.
Edwards, 27, and 23-year-old Rodriguez are the consensus best fighters in the 112lb division, but the Texas native proved to be a class above his opponent. Although Edwards had moments of success in a high-level contest, “Bam” was the man with the power, fracturing Edwards’ eye socket in the second round.
The damage eventually told as Rodriguez became the unified champion, but the outspoken Edwards earned plenty of kudos from fighters and fans alike for a valiant effort against one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet. The 27 minutes in the ring took their toll on the Londoner’s face, who posted a picture on X showing severe bruising to both eyes as well as a nasty gash above one eye and a smaller cut beneath the other.
“Lot of people being nice to me, probably don’t deserve it. Don’t give people a hard time for enjoying [my defeat], I know what I signed up for. This one’s for you, see you all next year,” Edwards captioned the post, accepting his critics will have plenty to say after the fighter did a lot of talking on social media before the fight.
Hearn urged the boxing community to go easy on Edwards after the defeat despite his trademark cockiness on social media, with the difficult challenge of coming to terms with the result over the next few weeks.
“Make sure you support him,” Hearn added. “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.”