Sunny Edwards faces fellow world champion Jesse Rodriguez on Saturday, December 16 at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, AZ. The pair squares off in a 12-round flyweight title unification with two belts on the line.
Undefeated Edwards (20-0, 4 KOs) brings to the ring his IBF belt. In his previous outing in June, the 27-year-old native of Sutton, England scored a unanimous decision against Andres Campos and made the fourth successful defense of his title.
“The reason why I don’t talk in person is that if I started talking and bullying you the way I could… Your trainer didn’t come to Orlando, and he’s not sat here – why? Because he is scared of what I say,” Sunny Edwards said at the final pre-fight press conference. “Your whole team is on eggshells, no one wants to look at me, you have been walking doing sweat sessions last night; I just want to make sure you don’t have any excuses for your bad hand, bad jaw, that’s why I didn’t bully you.”
“I know exactly who I am, I just didn’t want to bully a 23 year old kid because you wouldn’t have turned up otherwise. That’s why we’ve been chilling. You don’t know who you are, you don’t even know if you like boxing. You have been a nice, quiet little boy and now you want to say I don’t know who I am? You are the one that’s confused. Of course I shake your hand, you are a fighter. It’s not about talking sh*t, the reason I laid off you was I know how hard it was to get you and your team to accept this fight. You didn’t want this fight. On Saturday night you are going to be like your brother, retired. You have no heart for this.”
“Everyone says ‘game plan, game plan, game plan’ but it all goes out of the window when you can’t lay a glove on me. Facts. I’m not worried about this kid.”
‘If I didn’t want this fight, I wouldn’t be here’
Unbeaten two-division world champion Rodriguez (18-0, 11 KOs) is a newly-crowned WBO flyweight king. San Antonio’s 23-year-old southpaw claimed the title by unanimous decision against Cristian Gonzalez in April.
“This is the biggest fight of my career, no doubt, but I approach it the same way I always do; cool, calm and collected,” Jesse Rodriguez said. “There’s no need for talking, all my work has been done in the gym and on Saturday night, you’ll see that.”
“I’ve always been this way, and this is nothing different, it’s just another day and on Saturday night I am ready to shine. Camp is done, training is done, we have the right game plan and come Saturday night, people will see everything we’ve been working on, my hand will be raised in victory, and I am taking his belt, his ‘0’ and it’s time.”
“I respect him as a person, I said yesterday though that on social media he likes to talk but in person he doesn’t. If I didn’t want this fight, I wouldn’t be here. We wanted it and that’s why we’re here. I am going to do you like Julio Cesar Martinez did to your brother.”
“We’re ready, he’ll see, just tune in on DAZN. Bam Rodriguez, unified champion on Saturday night.”
In the co-main event former unified IBF and WBA super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev (11-1, 8 KOs) of Uzbekistan and Mexican southpaw Kevin Gonzalez (29-0-1, 13 KOs) clash in the eliminator for the WBA super bantamweight title. Also on the card, British Olympic gold medalist Galal Yafai (5-0 4 KOs) defends his WBC International flyweight strap against Rocco Santomauro (22-2, 6 KOs) of the United States. In addition, British Peter McGrail (8-0 5 KOs) and American Ja’Rico O’Quinn (16-1-1, 8 KOs) go head-to-head for the WBA Continental super bantamweight belt.
In the UK and Australia, Rodriguez vs Edwards airs live on Sunday, December 17.
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