Promoters Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing and Richard Schaefer of Probellum were on talkSPORT with Jim White and discussed a possible flyweight unification bout between Probellum’s Sunny Edwards, who holds the IBF title, and Matchroom’s Julio Cesar Martinez, holder of the WBC belt.
Edwards himself chimed in after the promoters spoke a bit, and the general consensus among the three was that the fight should happen.
“I think everybody wants that fight,” Hearn said. “Edwards is a character, and talk about rubbing people up the wrong way! He’s a great guy, he’s very outspoken, and he’s a very good fighter. He is, maybe, maybe the best in the division, but it’s between those two. Martinez against Sunny Edwards is definitely a fight that we need to see.”
“This is one of the most talked about fights, and I agree with your assessment of Sunny, I think he is an amazing self-promoter and he has the skills to back it up,” Schaefer added. “He’s a trash talker but he really he can fight. He’s got it all.”
Hearn also noted a big obvious pro for the bout, that the fight has an easy sell and some real backstory, as it was against Sunny’s brother Charlie Edwards where Martinez made his real breakthrough, even with the fight ending in a no-contest.
“There will be a lot of trash talking, and Sunny is a nightmare,” Hearn said. “He’s been having pops at Eddy Reynoso, at Canelo, of which Julio Cesar Martinez is part of the team, so the build-up is everything you want in a fight, you want two guys to go at it.”
Hearn suggested a two-fight deal, one bout in London and one in California, and Schaefer floated doing a full show of Matchroom vs Probellum fighters.
Then, as a surprise, Edwards himself joined the call from Dubai to reiterate his strong desire for the unification bout with Martinez.
“It’s the fight that makes the most sense,” he said. “There are other good fights out there for both of us in the division, but when you really think about it, there’s no other fight with the back story and with the pre-made build up.
“It’s a very interesting fight because it’s two completely conflicting styles and it’s splitting opinion pretty much down the middle, because if you ask half the people, then I’m getting knocked out in a matter of minutes and the other half is telling everyone I’m going to school him. I think that’s just great for boxing and like Eddie said, it can happen anywhere.”
This, of course, doesn’t exactly seal the deal, and lots of people say lots of things with cameras on them in boxing, but this is at least encouraging as far as possibly getting a deal done for what is a very good, very intriguing matchup.