BN Preview: Jesse Rodriguez and Sunny Edwards are two flyweights easy to overlook but full of both skill and ambition

By Elliot Worsell

IT is usually stated of heavyweights that rivals are required so as to really obtain greatness and create a long-lasting legacy and that, when considering of somebody like Muhammad Ali, for instance, we will even suppose of Joe Frazier and George Foreman, with out whom he wouldn’t be the Muhammad Ali we all know as we speak.

If that is true of heavyweights, and it definitely is, it’s much more crucial for fighters within the decrease weight lessons to discover their equal – their rival – and maintain on to them as if a once-missing youngster, or a passport. Without them, in any case, will probably be simpler for followers and for historical past to overlook these boxers, so small are they in stature and so shallow, traditionally, is the division through which they compete. Without a rival, they’ll nonetheless win belts, of course, but solely the connoisseurs of the game will probably bear in mind their achievements when all is alleged and carried out.

This is probably both a worry and motivating issue for flyweights Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez and Sunny Edwards, who meet this Saturday (December 16) in Glendale, Arizona. Alone, they are both revered technicians, unbeaten, and seemingly getting higher with every passing month. Yet collectively, which is the association this weekend, Rodriguez and Edwards are abruptly headliners in a giant battle, and possibly as shut to stardom as both of them are ever going to get.

Indeed, forward of this battle, uncommon for a battle at flyweight, there was a head-to-head filmed and varied different promotional pushes to boot. Successful or not (we are going to see on the evening), this in itself marks a breakthrough for both boxers and for the division through which they marketing campaign, one inclined to being ignored in favour of specializing in larger boxers and larger punchers.

Which is to say, in merely getting this far, Rodriguez and Edwards have to some extent succeeded. They have put the flyweight division on the map, if only for a weekend, and they’ve additionally given themselves an opportunity of changing into one thing greater than only a flyweight belt-holder (for now Rodriguez holds the WBO; Edwards the IBF).

Rodriguez, of course, may say he has already surpassed Edwards in phrases of achievement and profile and with this it will be exhausting to argue. He has, not like Edwards, scored some eye-catching wins at a world-class degree, notably a pair of them in 2022, the primary towards Carlos Cuadras (UD 12) and the second towards Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (TKO 8). However, regardless of this spectacular kind, Rodriguez remains to be, at 23, on the rise quite than totally fashioned. He has proven indicators of this in his final two performances, choice wins over Israel Gonzalez and Cristian Hernandez, neither of which noticed him dazzle the way in which he had beforehand dazzled. In reality, having received the WBC super-flyweight belt in 2022 towards the chances and towards schedule, there’s a feeling now that Rodriguez, down at flyweight, is simply getting began so far as legacy goes and that Edwards, arguably the very best opponent he might face at flyweight, is a key part on this. Beat him, and grow to be the primary fighter to accomplish that, and Rodriguez, 18-0 (11), could have secured a win each bit as spectacular as these prior ones towards Cuadras and Sor Rungvisai. Beat him and Rodriguez doesn’t simply add one other belt to his assortment. He elevates himself.

As for Edwards, 20-0 (4), the purpose is one thing comparable. Although dominant and comfortable at a sure degree, he nonetheless waits for his large, world-level efficiency, the type of breakout evening Rodriguez loved not as soon as but twice final 12 months. This, for Edwards, will, he hopes, come within the kind of Rodriguez on Saturday, but till it does, and till it’s a take a look at Edwards has aced, it’s exhausting to put the Croydon man (based mostly in Sheffield) on the identical pedestal. His wins have been principally emphatic, certain, with him clearly boxing inside himself, but, since dethroning an ageing Moruti Mthalane in 2021, Edwards has provided the impression of somebody desperately in want of a problem to present precisely what he can do. Against the likes of Jayson Mama, Muhammad Waseem, Felix Alvarado, and Andres Campos, he was for essentially the most half ready to do no matter he wished, and save for Alvarado, who made a good fist of it, the one hazard to Edwards was his personal complacency and boredom.

Plainly, based mostly on the way through which he received these fights, there’s a excessive diploma of expertise and ring intelligence with Edwards, but for this to be really appreciated he wants an opponent like Rodriguez and quick. After all, at 27, Edwards will likely be solely too conscious that the shelf life of a flyweight tends to be brief – far shorter than, say, a heavyweight – and {that a} man of his capacity, both boxing and promoting, wants to ideally be hanging whereas the iron’s sizzling.

This might presumably clarify one, why he pursued Rodriguez so relentlessly, and two, why he has since been so crucial of Rodriguez’s reluctance to promote the battle with the identical alacrity as him. Because Edwards is aware of, being as he’s completely on-line and in salesman mode, the significance of promoting a battle like this and going the additional mile to accomplish that. He is aware of that whereas heavyweights can get by on their title, their status, and the prospect of a battle ending through bone-chilling knockout, he and Rodriguez, or simply flyweights typically, are not so fortunate. Without selling this battle, few outdoors the hardcore will likely be conscious of its existence, a lot much less care sufficient to watch it. Why? Because, proper or improper, the idea every time flyweights meet in a hoop is that there will likely be a lot in the way in which of pace and method but little or no in the way in which of energy or drama. The expectation, consequently of this, is that the battle is determined by three scorecards, with the inevitability of this permitting no room for even the chance of drama.

Rodriguez on the pads (Melina Pizano/Matchroom)

This Edwards received’t want to be informed, of course, for he’s alert and shrewd sufficient to realize it already. In Rodriguez, too, he’ll see an opponent whose title is large enough and whose type is interesting sufficient for a battle towards him to imply one thing extra than simply one other title defence. In Rodriguez, he sees an equal, a rival, and, to put a finer level on it, a enterprise associate. Or no less than that was the hope when pursuing this battle and ultimately agreeing to it. In actuality, although, Rodriguez, as soon as signing the contract, quickly retreated from the highlight quite than bathed in it, leaving Edwards, considerably perplexed, to do lots of the flogging on his personal, which, relying in your viewpoint, might be seen as both a necessity or desperation.

From a numbers’ perspective, it could possibly be very important, Edwards’ eagerness on this regard. Yet the promoting of a battle will in the end imply little or no when the primary bell rings and the battle begins. It is at that time numbers matter solely in phrases of punches landed and rounds collected. It is at that time we are going to uncover whether or not Rodriguez was proper to focus extra on the battle than the promoting of it, or whether or not Edwards was proper, and ok, to give you the option to spend his time doing both.

Regardless, when stripped again to what counts, Rodriguez vs. Edwards is no doubt one of the extra fascinating fights of this calendar 12 months. Whether match for casuals or not, a bit like Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence, albeit nowhere close to that degree, its reputation actually doesn’t matter when you get pleasure from seeing high quality boxers attempt to suss each other out. Forget energy, and overlook the drama of the heavyweights, right here, within the form of Rodriguez and Edwards, it is possible for you to to see each shot within the e book thrown accurately and, furthermore, by boxers oblivious to the idea of defeat and subsequently totally assured of their capacity to keep unbeaten. That alone makes this battle higher than most. That alone is an efficient sufficient cause for it to be promoted and watched.

Who is aware of, it might even be a traditional. There has definitely been no scarcity of these within the decrease weight lessons over time and, let’s not overlook, Rodriguez and Edwards have a tendency to please followers, whether or not it’s by showmanship, as is the case with Edwards, or gritty in-fighting, as we regularly see from Rodriguez. Together, very a lot bull and matador, this mix of kinds might, at finest, produce one thing spectacular, and, at worst, one thing intriguing, a battle full of ebb and move and shifts in momentum.

For Rodriguez, you’re feeling will probably be essential to achieve Edwards’ respect early and make a dent in him. This will likely be essential so far as lowering Edwards’ confidence and slowing him down, notably if Rodriguez, a great physique puncher, goals his assaults in that space within the early going. Meanwhile, Edwards, the counterpuncher, will little doubt look to exaggerate his actions and his perceived dominance so as to set up superiority, if even simply an phantasm of it, from the outset. This he has carried out in earlier title defences and it’s exhausting to think about him now doing something completely different in a battle of such significance. Indeed, the important thing for Edwards successful is to deal with this like another battle, guaranteeing he’s simply as relaxed, calm underneath fireplace and fluid as standard.

Should he handle this, it’s easy to see a situation through which he builds a lead and maintains it in spite of a late Rodriguez rally. Yet Rodriguez is a much better opponent than anybody Edwards has confronted to date and is unlikely subsequently to permit Edwards to merely settle the way in which he hopes to settle. More skilled than his 23 years would counsel, Rodriguez is a younger man accustomed to stress and, not like Edwards, has received fights he wasn’t essentially anticipated to win.

That stated, generally when listening to boxers, and when seeing their boasts come to fruition, you get a way as to their potential and whether or not they have reached it or not. With Edwards, the sensation that he hasn’t but reached his is one exhausting to shake, particularly when listening to the conviction in his voice and remembering how snug he appeared when beating opponents not ok to generate any kind of worry in him. This might, it’s true, be the evening we lastly realise he’s higher on social media than he’s within the firm of world-class opposition, but equally, and that is my hunch, this could possibly be the evening once we see Edwards flourish and affirm, by approach of choice, what many of us have suspected for some time.

On an undercard principally affected by 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 can also be a 12-round super-bantamweight battle between California-based Uzbek Murodjon Akhmadaliev, 11-1 (8), and Kevin Gonzalez, 26-0-1 (13).