Shining Edwards survived a horrific cut to win a comeback fight against Adrian Curiel after losing the IBF Flyweight title to Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez last December. The 28-year-old Briton slid around the squared circle, hitting Curiel with a string of punches as his opponent struggled to land.
The pair clashed heads, however, ending with a nasty uppercut from Edwards. The fight continued for a while, but was eventually stopped when the doctor advised the referee to stop the fight early. A technical decision was then made, which Edwards won unanimously by scores of 90-82, 88-84, and 87-85.
The scorecards were surprisingly close, with Edwards in control of the fight, and the Phoenix crowd wasn’t cheerful either, with boos audible from the Footprint Center. “I don’t know if the audience realizes what happened there.
“The doctor stopped the cut, I haven’t made a decision, I’m more nervous than any of the 10,000 fans here. I thought I had a clear advantage and I thought my opponent was slowing down. I thought I would get him out of there or win completely in the end.
“Twice in a row I managed to leave Arizona uglier than I arrived, so I want to apologize to the fans who took it personally, but I had nothing to do with the referee stopping it. Maybe I’ll come back and fight Curiel again, I don’t know what the fans want.”
Galal Yafai is one of the fighters hoping to face Edwards. Yafai was on the Rodriguez-Edwards undercard last December. “I expect to fight him next time,” he said.
“I think, ‘Yes, we will keep fighting,’ and if it doesn’t happen, then no. I’ll go further. If so, I’m here [already] expecting this. We’ll see what happens – we’ll see how he does.
“We are trying to make this fight next. It all depends on how he handles it. We’re trying to work it out, but it’s nothing set in stone. We see how much they will offer. From the way he talks, it sounds like he already got an offer.
“He would have a three-fight deal or something like that, so they’d say you get X amount, but my contract was three years, so it’s a fight-by-fight deal. ‘You’re going to fight this person; you’re going to fight this person.’
“We still haven’t resolved the matter yet, but we have had a few words with her [Matchroom chief executive] Frank Smith and the band, so we just get through it.