Galal Yafai easily steamrolled past Sunny Edwards to capture the WBC interim flyweight title on November 30.
In just two years as a professional fighter, the 31-year-old southpaw from Birmingham, UK has carried the momentum from his 2020 Olympics gold medal-winning run.
Yafai (9-0, 7 KOs) said scoring the sixth-round stoppage win against Edwards (21-2, 4 KOs) was more satisfying than capturing one of boxing’s most prestigious amateur accolades.
“I'm not going to lie – winning gold in the Olympics is the best achievement I'll ever do,” said Yafai. “But it was a better feeling beating Sunny than actually standing on the podium. That's just how good Sunny is.
“I think people are underrating me. I don't want to brag too much but I won Olympics gold going up against the best group of guys in the world. I boxed Cubans and Kazakhs as an amateur so I was used to that style like Sunny's. It was just my night.
"This win means everything. Sunny is a great champion. I was worried going into camp because of how good Sunny is and I trained my ass off.”
Yafai won every round against Edwards, outlanding him 162 to 51. After the second stanza, Edwards told his corner in between rounds “I don’t even want to be in here.”
The former flyweight champion Edwards, 28, announced his retirement immediately after the fight when referee Lee Every stopped the contest due to the still-standing Edwards absorbing a barrage of blows.
“I don’t fully agree that the fight got stopped when it got stopped, but he was throwing a lot and I wasn’t responding with a lot,” said Edwards. “I didn’t feel ridiculously hurt in there, but once Galal starts letting his hands go, it’s hard to get away from them.”
While Edwards is calling it a career, Yafai will be moving on to bigger and better things.
After the fight, Matchroom Boxing head Eddie Hearn said he’d be pursuing a fight against the WBC’s full flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji (24-1, 15 KOs).
Manouk Akopyan is the lead U.S. writer for The Ring. Follow him on X and Instagram.