Sunny Edwards retained his IBF flyweight title today in Sheffield, England, beating challenger Felix Alvarado by unanimous decision on scores of 115-113, 115-113, and 116-112.
Bad Left Hook’s unofficial card was slightly wider to Edwards at 117-111, but the judges’ cards were fair, and the right man won the fight.
Edwards (19-0, 4 KO) once again displayed his skills and slickness, often making Alvarado (38-3, 33 KO) look like he was stuck in motion trying to land shots as Sunny moved around, stuck in quick shots, and was gone before the Nicaraguan challenger and former 108 lb titlist was able to respond.
But Alvarado had his successes in the fight, too, at times simply out-working Edwards in rounds, where Alvarado came out aggressively, pressured as much as he could, and would get Edwards stuck on the ropes. Alvarado may have landed one out of every 15 shots thrown in those situations, but he was throwing a lot, and Edwards was not landing in return.
Mostly, though, Edwards was able to do his thing. He was better on the inside than Alvarado was on the outside, which probably made the official difference, because the rounds Edwards definitely won, he was not just moving and moving, then stopping and sticking, but moving, stopping, sticking, and then putting a bit more together with Alvarado unable to match the punch pace in close.
Edwards’ defensive ability and footwork also clearly frustrated Alvarado quite a bit, which is not the first good fighter to have real problems with that. Moruti Mthalane and Muhammad Waseem lost decisions to Edwards in much the same manner — they weren’t suddenly worse fighters than we thought, and neither is Alvarado, but Edwards is just very, very hard to win enough rounds against.
“Every time I’m fighting, I’m trying to test myself,” Edwards said after the fight. “Felix Alvarado is a phenomenal puncher, so if I can sit there and mix it with him — and I showed that I could, I showed that I could ride shots, take shots, and throw my my own shots back — I can do it against anyone. He was a very, very hard puncher in there, but I would not be denied.
“I want the big fights. (Julio Cesar) Martinez, he’s running scared. ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, you promised me the fight next, come and get it.”
Edwards vs Alvarado highlights
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