Charlie Edwards To Challenge Thomas Essomba For European Bantamweight Title

Originally posted on BoxingNews.com | By Jonathan Turner | Last updated Jul 1, 2024 4:07 PM ET

Former flyweight world champion Charlie Edwards will take on European bantamweight champion Thomas Essomba in the United Kingdom on September 13, it was announced on Monday.

Essomba (13-8-1 4 KO) had been expected to make his title defense against mandatory challenger Paul Butler, with purse bids expected to take place on Tuesday.

However, an agreement has been reached for the Cameroon-born Englishman to make a voluntary defense against Edwards first, which will take place at an unspecified location in the U.K. The winner will then take on Butler.

Essomba became European champion in May last year when he produced a career-best performance to shock Alessio Lorusso in Monza, Italy. He then defended his title with a split decision victory against Elie Konki in February.

Essomba Secures Glory

Essomba’s recent success comes after a rollercoaster career that began with a defeat on debut and later included Commonwealth and British titles at flyweight. The southpaw then went on a difficult run, losing seven of 12 fights between 2016 and 2022, before rebounding in spectacular style by beating Lorusso in front of his home fans.

Among his losses was to Edwards’ brother Sunny, who beat Essomba in August 2020 to retain his IBF International super-flyweight belt.

While Sunny Edwards went on to become world champion at flyweight and made five successful defenses before suffering his first defeat to pound-for-pound star Jesse Rodriguez, Charlie’s similarly bright career has experienced frustrating setbacks in recent years.

Edwards (19-1-0 7 KO) became the WBC’s flyweight world champion with a superb performance against Cristofer Rosales in December 2018 and made one successful defense.

Edwards Rebuilding Career

His showdown with the dangerous Julio Cesar Martinez in his second defense ended in controversy, with Edwards getting battered in a third-round knockout. However, the result was quickly changed to a no contest after consulting the video replay, which showed the Mexican landing an illegal body shot when the champion had already taken a knee.

The challenge to keep making the 112lbs weight limit proved too much for Edwards, who then vacated the title and moved up to super-flyweight. Yet, after two fights in 2021, the British fighter endured two years of inactivity – a consequence, he said recently, of a series of bad decisions related to his management team and training setup.

Edwards is now back with a new trainer (Stephen Smith) and a new management company (Wasserman) as he looks to rebuild an impressive career that had hit the rocks. He returned in June last year with a six-round shutout win over Darwing Martinez, and most recently defeated Georges Ory in April to collect the WBC International silver bantamweight belt.

Now with an opportunity to secure a major European title, Edwards will be aiming to continue his path to becoming a two-weight world champion.

This article first appeared on BoxingNews.com and was syndicated with permission.

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