Charlie Edwards (born 8 February 1993) is a British

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

. He held the WBC

flyweight Flyweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Flyweight is a class in boxing which includes fighters weighing above 49 kg (108 lb) and up to 51 kg (112 lb). Professional boxing The flyweight division was the last of b ...

title from 2018 to 2019, and once challenged for the

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

flyweight title in 2016. At regional level, he held the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

super-flyweight Super flyweight, also referred to as junior bantamweight, is a weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . History The first title match in this division was in 1980, when the World Boxing Council responded to pressure from Asi ...

title in 2017. As of June 2020, Edwards is ranked as the world's fifth best active flyweight by

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, fifth by the

Transnational Boxing Rankings Board The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB) is an all-volunteer initiative formed in October 2012 with the intention of providing professional boxing with authoritative top-ten rankings, identifying the singular world champion of every divisio ...

and fifth by ''The Ring''. He is the older brother of boxer Sunny Edwards.

Early life

Edwards was born on 8 February 1993, in

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a location * Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire * S ...

. He started boxing at the age of 11 as a means to lose weight and it was apparent early on that there existed a bright path for him within the sport if pursued with true commitment . He would then go on to represent the long-standing Repton Boxing Club in London, whilst also getting his brother Sunny into boxing. He grew up being influenced by legendary boxers

Sugar Ray Leonard Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), best known as "Sugar" Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professiona ...

and

Manny Pacquiao Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao Sr. (; born December17, 1978) is a Filipino politician and former professional boxer. Nicknamed "PacMan", he is regarded as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. He served as a Senator of the Phil ...

Amateur career

He won the 2011 Amateur Boxing Association British light-flyweight title, when boxing out of the Lynn ABC. Three years later in 2014 he won the flyweight title boxing out of Repton ABC.

Professional career

Edwards turned professional in 2015, debuting at

The O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the ...

with a fourth-round

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

win. Edwards compiled a record of 13–1, and was ranked #15 by the WBC before shocking and defeating Cristofer Rosales to win the WBC flyweight title. On 31 August 2019, Edwards defended his title against Julio Cesar Martinez at the O2 Arena on the undercard of

Vasyl Lomachenko Vasyl Anatoliyovych Lomachenko ( uk, Василь Анатолійович Ломаченко, ; also spelled Vasiliy; born 17 February 1988) is a Ukrainian professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in three weight classes f ...

vs. Luke Campbell. Martinez came out determined and managed to stop Edwards with 1:43 left in the third round. Edwards was not able to beat the count, and initially Martinez was awarded a knockout victory. After the video replay was shown, it was evident that Martinez had hit Edwards with a body shot with the latter already on the floor with one knee. The fight would therefore be ruled a

no contest ' is a legal term that comes from the Latin phrase for "I do not wish to contend". It is also referred to as a plea of no contest or no defense. In criminal trials in certain United States jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neithe ...

, with WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman ordering an immediate rematch. In October 2019, he announced that he had vacated the WBC flyweight title due to health concerns over making weight at flyweight.

Professional boxing record

References

External links