Sunny Edwards announced his retirement in the ring after his one-sided stoppage defeat by his rival Galal Yafai.
He was rescued by the referee Lee Every 70 seconds into the sixth round at Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, England, having sustained consistent punishment throughout an unexpectedly one-sided contest.
It was in December 2023 when he lost for the first time, via stoppage in a unification showdown with the great Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.
Rodriguez’s move up in weight meant he had again come to be regarded as the world’s finest flyweight, but his fellow Briton Yafai bullied him to replace him as not only Britain’s finest at 112lbs, but perhaps the world’s.
At 28 Edwards, who had recently separated from his long-term trainer Grant Smith and was fighting for the first time under Chris Williams, lacked the mobility and feet that had previously contributed to him reigning as the IBF champion.
At the conclusion of the second round he could be heard saying to Williams “Can I be real with you? I don’t want to be in here”, and he also barely protested when Every intervened.
Yafai, 31, had struggled to excel in his eight previous professional contests but for the first time showed the abilities that meant at the 2020 Games him winning Olympic gold.
He is on course to fight the WBC champion Kenshiro Teraji in 2025, by when, according to Edwards, Edwards will have fought for the final time.
“Galal started really fast, we knew he would, but if I’m perfectly, perfectly honest, win, lose or draw – my team know this – I was retiring tonight,” Edwards said. "I don’t have the same energy that I had for the sport; for the process.
“I’ll be perfectly real. I put so much into the first six, seven years of my career that I just needed a break. I needed a break, really, before this fight, but I always want to compete with the best, and while I was the number one I wanted to be involved in the biggest fights; the biggest events. I knew it was going to be hard tonight, but the Sunny Edwards of 12 months ago would have gone longer than six rounds.
“I don’t fully agree that the fight got stopped when it got stopped, but he was throwing a lot and I weren’t responding with a lot. I didn’t feel ridiculously hurt in there, but once Galal starts letting his hands go, it’s hard to get away from.
“For the first time ever I’ve been more thinking and concentrating outside of the sport. My family; my kids. I’ve been going through some stuff in my personal life that I’m trying to set up for the future. But I knew Galal was going to be a hard fight – I said it the whole way through. Maybe I didn’t think as hard as it turned out to be tonight, but all props to the best man. He more than won tonight. If I was him I’d class myself as a world champion – he beat the number one in the division, very conclusively.”
When he was preparing to fight Rodriguez, Edwards and Rodriguez were considered their division’s number one and two. Numerous observers considered him capable of victory that evening; Edwards’ standing in Britain was such that he rivalled Tyson Fury to be considered Britain’s number one, pound for pound.
“I achieved what I initially set out to, and I’ve always been waiting for this fight,” he continued. "As soon as he turned pro [I wanted to fight him], and the fight’s here – it was a fantastic event. One of my proudest moments to bring an event and fight like this to the UK – to Birmingham. There was 7,000, 8,000 people here tonight – a dream come true. But when you just ain’t got that same fire in your belly, and you come up against someone that’s still got it all to do and still really wants to do it, the evidence is there in the ring tonight.
“[Yafai will go] all the way. He’s an Olympic gold medallist, and in his ninth fight he just beat the number one in the division. I remember what that was like, three or four years ago. I’m sure he’s gonna get a lot of confidence, and a lot of motivation from this. Hopefully he goes on and dethrones Teraji and looks good doing it.”