Galal Yafai Shines in Birmingham, Sunny Edwards Talks Retirement

On November 30, at the bp pulse LIVE, Birmingham, we saw plenty of impressive performances on the undercard with Callum Smith returning to action and debutant Taylor Bevan dazzling, before Conah Walker dominated against Lewis Ritson. The Matchroom Boxing card live on DAZN was headlined by Sunny Edwards (21-2, 4 KOs) vs. Galal Yafai (9-0, 7 KOs) for the vacant WBC interim world flyweight crown. The main event saw a dominating performance from Yafai who won by sixth round TKO.

Galal Yafai Dominates Against Sunny Edwards in Birmingham

Sunny Edwards vs. Galal Yafai Recap

The opening round saw Yafai start brightly, landing a short right hand which shocked Edwards. The pressure from the Birmingham fighter was intense in the first round as he was landing almost at will. It was a great start from the 2020 Tokyo gold medallist.

The second round saw more pressure from Yafai, picking his shots well and controlling the distance. Edwards couldn’tseem to avoid the punches from his opponent, who was landing again almost at will. At the end of the round, it appeared Sunny said to his corner, “Can I be real, I don’t want to be here.”

The third round saw Edwards land some nice shots at the end of the round, but Yafai was having great success. The Birmingham fighter is outworking Edwards, and this work rate continued into the fourth, where he applied significant pressure with “Showtime” having only limited success.

The sixth round began in the same vain as the previous rounds, before a sustained attack from Yafai forced the referee to step in and save Sunny from further punishment. It was a dominating performance – which will take the Birmingham fighter onto bigger fights.

Post Fight Quotes

In the post-fight interview, Yafai reflected on the win and said: “It means everything. Sunny is a great champion.”

Talking about his fast start, he said: “That’s the way I always approach it.”

Looking back on his sparring with Edwards: “The sparring was brilliant,” said Yafai.

He continued: “Fights are different as we showed tonight.”

Edwards reflected on the loss and said: “Galal started really fast.”

“Showtime” then revealed: “Galal started really fast. If I’m perfectly honest win, lose or draw I was going to retire tonight. I put a lot into the first six or seven years of my career and I don’t have that love for boxing anymore.”

Eddie Hearn paid tribute to the career of Sunny Edwards before talking about the win for Yafai and said: “It was an unbelievable ice-cold performance from Galal Yafai.”