Sunny Edwards wants flyweight unification fight or will move up in weight

Sunny Edwards is fresh off of a successful IBF flyweight title defense this past Friday, beating Felix Alvarado in a tough fight over 12 rounds in Sheffield, England, and says that he wants unification, or he’ll move up in weight.

The 26-year-old Edwards’ choices are laid out there: Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, who has an order to face Cristian Gonzalez for the WBO title next; Julio Cesar Martinez, who has the WBC belt and some history against Sunny’s brother, Charlie; or Artem Dalakian, who has the WBA belt and an order to David Jimenez next.

In short, it may be tough to get either of them for his very next fight. Bam doesn’t have the belt yet, Dalakian has a mandatory order in line, and Martinez is a Matchroom fighter, which doesn’t make things impossible, but could make things difficult.

Now Edwards doesn’t specifically say it has to be next, but that he wants it next year, or he’ll go up to 115. That’s a tough division, but it’s also an aging division — top dogs Juan Francisco Estrada, Chocolatito Gonzalez, and Kazuto Ioka are 32, 35, and 33, respectively. Not old, and fighters fight at high levels longer than in the past, but they’re all in the latter stages of their careers, surely.

Estrada and Chocolatito are set to meet for a third time on Dec. 3, with the vacant WBC title on the line. Ioka, the WBO titleholder, may have WBA titlist Joshua Franco on Dec. 31, but that hasn’t been officially announced just yet. The IBF title is held by Fernando Martinez, another good fighter.

115 has, in recent years, been a division where the top fighters actually face one another. Edwards seems to genuinely have the desire to take the biggest challenges. Hopefully, whether it’s 112 or a move up, he gets to do that.