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Boxer Sunny Edwards, who went viral for mid-fight confession, retires from competition

by · MMAmania.com

Alexander Behunin specializes in running MMAmania.com's various social media accounts, as well as covering live UFC events, interviewing the sports biggest stars and personalities.

Former boxing Flyweight boxing champion Sunny Edwards has retired.

Edwards suffered a sixth-round loss this past weekend (Sat., Nov. 30) when Galal Yafai stopped the British boxer with a barrage of strikes, resulting in a technical knockout (TKO) for the interim WBC flyweight title.

Check out the finish below:

It is remarkable that Edwards went six rounds because a viral clip surfaced of him saying he did not want to fight.

“Man, do you want me to be real, Chris?” Edwards told his trainer, Chris Williams. “I don’t even wanna be here.”

Williams responded by saying, “Don’t be f—king stupid, lad. Stop f—king feeling sorry for yourself right now. Stop feeling f—king sorry for yourself because you’ve had one bad f—king round.”

Following his loss, Edwards retired from boxing at the age of 28.

If I’m perfectly, perfectly honest, win, lose or draw - my team knows this - win, lose or draw, I was retiring tonight,” Edwards said during his post-fight interview. “I don’t have the same energy I had for this sport, for the process. I’ll be perfectly real. I put so much in for the first six or seven years of my career that I just needed a break. I needed a break really before this fight, but I always want to compete with the best, and while I was the No. 1, I wanted to be involved in the biggest fights, the biggest events. But I knew, I knew, I said the whole way that it was going to be hard tonight, but the Sunny Edwards from 12 months ago would’ve gone longer than six rounds. I’ll be real.”

Edwards (21-2, 4 KO) is a multi-time champion in the Flyweight and Super Flyweight divisions. He won the Won IBF Flyweight title in 2021 and defended it four times before losing it to Jesse Rodriguez.


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