Sunny Edwards Has No Regrets Over His Retirement

December 28, 2024
2 months
Sunny Edwards Has No Regrets Over His Retirement

Sunny Edwards has no regrets about retiring after his loss to Galal Yafai

Edwards was stopped just before round six began, giving him his second defeat. Jesse Rodriguez stopped him in his only other loss. Edwards announced his retirement after the Yafai loss at just 28. But the writing was on the wall very early on in the fight. After round two, Edwards told his trainer, Chris Williams, “Can I be real with you? I don’t want to be in here.”

This was after Yafai had a strong second round, landing consistently to the body. The fight, in hindsight, could have been stopped there to prevent Edwards from suffering sustained damage. He had already achieved the pinnacle by becoming a world champion. There was a perception that Edwards was simply looking to quit. That is a sign that the hunger was not there. While Edwards had the potential to do more, he has no regrets over calling it quits.

Edwards’ Reacts

“But, look, no regrets. I’ve had a great career. I’ve given 20 years of my life competing, traveling around the world, giving my best. I haven’t had a season off. I’ve competed every single year since 11 years old. It’s sad, and it’s probably the hardest thing to accept, but I felt, most, relieved when the circus was done. After a loss, that mindset showed and told me everything I needed to know. I don’t think I’ve made the wrong decision,” Edwards said

Edwards also stated that his retirement would have happened regardless of the result. He admitted that he could not keep putting his body through the demands he needed to fight at championship level. However, there is an argument that the Rodriguez loss took a lot out of Sunny. Edwards recalled how he was half-blinded and had his face broken. The result was tough since Sunny sought to unify the division.

Reason For Retirement

However, Rodriguez is a special fighter and is considered one of the best P4P boxers in the world. The difference in class was there, but Edwards did not feel that was the deciding factor in his retirement. He recalled how his training regiment had reduced drastically. That was partly due to a lack of desire and the required physical demands. That was the key reason he left the sport, which showed in the fight. 

“I’m not sure if it’s just the Rodriguez fight. I think there were signs in other fights before, but I’ve been trying my best. My body just doesn’t keep up the demand that I try and put it through. I end up really tailoring down the amount of training I do because I can’t physically keep up with the real schedule. My training’s whittled down from four or five years ago, from training two or three times every day through the week and a run on Saturday – Sunday, day off – to training once a day. It really has whittled down,” Edwards added 

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