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Mike Coppinger, ESPN
Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez and Sunny Edwards have signed contracts for a flyweight title unification fight, Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing announced Thursday.
The matchup pits ESPN’s top two boxers at 112 pounds: Rodriguez, who holds the WBO title, and Edwards, the IBF champion who is rated No. 2. The fight will take place in the U.S. and will likely land in December, sources told ESPN.
“Delighted to deliver the biggest fight in the division for both of our fighters,” Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith told ESPN. “Respect to both for making it happen.”
Rodriguez, a 23-year-old who fights out of San Antonio, captured the vacant WBO flyweight title in April with a unanimous-decision victory over Cristian Gonzalez. “Bam”, the younger brother of 115-pound titleholder Joshua Franco, broke out last year with a pair of victories over former champions Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in junior bantamweight fights.
Now, Rodriguez (18-0, 11 KOs) will step up to what shapes up as the toughest test of his career in Edwards, a slick-boxing Englishman. The 27-year-old retained his title earlier this month with a unanimous-decision win over Andres Campos.
The bout was Edwards’ Matchroom debut, and now he, too, will step up in competition against a fellow elite fighter.
“What I do is different to anything anyone else does in a boxing ring,” Edwards (20-0, 4 KOs) said ahead of his win over Campos. ” … It’s not just that I want all of the belts, I don’t want anyone else to have them.
“It sickens me, it pains me that there’s three other people at my weight that walk around saying the same s— that I say.”