‘I just didn’t feel it there’: Edwards says he’s lost that spark to fight

Sunny Edwards reflects on his stoppage loss to Galal Yafai over the weekend.

Following his TKO loss to Galal Yafai this past Saturday, Sunny Edwards took to the post-fight press conference to talk about his thoughts on the fight and why he doesn’t think he has it in him anymore to continue on fighting. Here’s some of what he had to say below.

Edwards on if he ever considered not going through with the fight knowing that he wasn’t up for it

“I don’t pull out, man. I’ve got two kids for a reason. I’ll be real, I don’t pull out. If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m touching 20 years in the boxing career, professional now for about eight, and I’ve been busy. Every time I get out of the ring the only thing I’m thinking about is getting in the ring, it’s absorbed my life, my happiness, my effort, my time spent.

“I’ve missed so many sports days, I’ve missed so many firsts of my kids life to do this and with my body falling apart I couldn’t get through a camp for the four, five years without a bad wrist, a bad hand, a bad shoulder, two bad ankles. I had to miss two, three weeks of training for this camp because I couldn’t walk. Sparring done my left ankle, two weeks later I was fighting. Four, five weeks out I was sprinting — I was making a point of doing two sessions again for the first time in a while and I snapped my ankle doing the sprints that night.

“But I’ll be real, man. I’ve really, really enjoyed everything boxing has offered me so far. Maybe a part of it is starting to enjoy the other side of boxing and starting to put an effort into the other side of boxing — the management, the commentary. And I don’t know man, this camp was hard, there was a lot of change, I took the fight, I didn’t have a trainer...I don’t know if the camera picked up on me not wanting to be there, I hope it picked up on the speech he gave me because those next four rounds, that was for Chris.”

On what he considers to be his best moment in the ring during his career

“Probably the Bam fight, if I’m honest. The Bam fight was a real dream come true. I know I didn’t win it that night but headlining the unification fight against an undefeated fighter that the world was talking about, in America, yeah, that experience was crazy.

“I think people don’t really realize how happy I’ve been to be here this whole time. I’ve always believed in myself and always thought I could be and would be one of the best in the world but just seeing the flyweight division growing into something and being a big part of it and headlining what, eight, nine, ten fights at 112 lbs, I don’t know how many people have done that or will do that.

“But I’ll be real, I just feel like I knew from the camp really, maybe even if I’m being perfectly honest from the Curiel fight — I was in tears after that fight. I won. I think I knew then that the same spark that I had that has helped me walk through fire, walk through anything that was in front of me — I don’t know, man — I just didn’t feel it there. I didn’t feel it in sparring, I didn’t feel it in training, and I definitely, definitely didn’t feel it there tonight.”

On how soon he knew it wasn’t going to be his night against Yafai

“I mean I was still fighting. I get why the ref stopped the fight. In there I was a bit surprised that he did. Like I know that I ride some shots sometimes but I’m just sitting there waiting for him to stop trying to punch so I can throw one back, trying to work him a little bit. I knew he was going to start fast and as the tide went the way it did I thought I started landing some shots and having a bit of success but, yeah, I needed him to slow down and I felt like maybe he would’ve in a couple of rounds but, yeah, not before the ref jumped in.

“I don’t know. Maybe I need that hate again, that spite. I don’t think I have it in me now to hate anyone, not in this world. I think I’ve turned a corner in my mindset.”