Rhys Edwards returns home after a “steady-ish” six-mile run, having breezed through a pace that would make serious runners blush he tapers for his upcoming bout in Barnsley, England.
Originally due to face Leon Woodstock, Edwards now meets tough veteran southpaw Thomas Essomba on Saturday, June 7, and the likeable Welshman is riding high off his first career defeat.
That is right. An unbeaten prospect lost for the first time and it was not a blessing in disguise or something to learn from, but legitimately the high point of the gifted 25-year-old’s career.
It was in December when Edwards was drafted in at incredibly short notice and flown to Saudi Arabia to take on Peter McGrail, who had been left without an opponent after Dennis McCann popped for PEDs.
Edwards lost a close decision against former Olympian McGrail, thought to be one of the UK’s finer prospects, and gave the Liverpool man a tough night.
“Honestly, I’m not saying this, it didn’t feel like a loss at all,” Edwards told BoxingScene. “It was probably the happiest I’ve been after a fight – and that’s money aside, just in the aspect of my name’s out there, everyone’s congratulating me, it’s just like it’s put me right out there. It’s the happiest I’ve been after a fight and it’s the only fight I’ve lost.”
In an era where conditioning your ‘0’ has been as important as learning to jab and move your head, Edwards could not be happier to have lost his.
Now 16-1 (4 KOs) – having been defeated by McGrail in their 10-rounder by a point on one card and two points on the other two – Edwards added: “No one wants to lose, do they? But I know I couldn’t have lost in a better fashion. It was a razor-close fight. But I hate all this keeping your ‘0’ stuff because it just builds so much pressure as well and you don’t really gain nothing from it. I’m not just saying that because I've lost now, you just learn loads in them 50-50 fights and for me that’s what boxing’s about.”
Edwards is a fierce competitor, as his coach Gary Lockett was. Lockett was a heavy-handed Welshman who lost a middleweight world title fight to Kelly Pavlik in Atlantic City back in 2008.
Lockett talks very highly of the promise Edwards shows, and Edwards is fully-invested in his work with the man who boasted a pulverising left hook – dubbed Lockett’s Rocket.
“It honestly couldn’t be better at this moment in time,” Edwards said of their training. “Obviously it’s hard to get a smile out of him sometimes, but we’re getting there. He’s a quality person but his boxing brain is honestly second to none. I’ve been around a lot of gyms in Britain sparring, met some quality coaches and obviously Gary’s right up there with the best of them.”
Edwards is hoping to play his part in a Welsh boxing boom. When Lockett was with trainer Enzo Calzaghe, the gym boasted Joe Calzaghe, Enzo Maccarinelli, Gavin Rees, and Nathan Cleverly. That small ramshackle gym created champion after champion.
Edwards identifies Joe Calzaghe, Rees, and Colin Jones as three who paved the way for this generation, while also giving two-time champion Joe Cordina his flowers for all of the sparring rounds they have shared.
With Olympic champion Lauren Price reigning as unified welterweight champion, Edwards hopes they can lead a new era of Welsh boxing and wholeheartedly believes one is on the way.
“I really think it is,” said the 25-year-old. “Obviously with her now being the great champion that she is, I can’t see why not. There’s loads of good talent come through in Wales, some brilliant talent, and I’m sure a good show in Cardiff – Lauren defending the world titles, me fighting for a British title and a great undercard of Welsh fighters – that’d be great.”
Edwards has had plenty of notice for this weekend’s fight at Barnsley’s Oakwell Football Ground, although the opponent was switched just three or four weeks ago. Still, it’s all good experience for the man from Penygraig.
“It’s crazy, like the business side behind it,” he said of learning the ropes outside the ring. “I would just never have thought it’d be like it is now before I turned pro.
“Once you first start, if you told me when I was like 16, 17 I was winning British, Welsh titles as an amateur just because I loved it, really. I just really enjoyed it. I was good at it, yeah, but I’d never think I’d be earning a tidy living out of it now and hopefully a better living soon.”
And, following a loss, he has never felt better placed to capitalize than he does heading into his fight on the Callum Simpson-Ivan Zucco undercard.
“It just gets the ball rolling again, gets me seen, gets me out there, more experience and hopefully sets up the British title shot next,” he said, of facing Essomba.
It also means Edwards has had more time to prepare, rather than answering a late call and flying halfway around the world to deputise for another fighter. But he of course has no regrets over taking the shot at McGrail.
“I remember when I got the call it was very unexpected but obviously, reading comments and stuff on the announcement and stuff, and people would just write me off totally like, ‘Oh, this is a pointless fight, he [McGrail]’s gone from Dennis McCann to this,’ ‘who is this fella?’ So, yeah, I was proud,” Edwards added. “I’m kind of gutted as well, obviously, to have lost and I’m happy the way I lost because it was so close, but then it makes it worse as well because if I’d just done something a little bit different, I could have won it.
“But, yeah, it is what it is. It’s been class since then. It’s really opened up some big doors and put my name out there.”