_6.jpg)
A brief glance at Charlie Edwards’ record shows that the former WBC flyweight champion hasn’t been in the ring since June 2023. That doesn’t tell the full story. In reality, the 31 year old has been away from big-time boxing for almost five years.
The last time Edwards competed at world level came in 2019 when his WBC flyweight title defence against Julio Cesar Martinez was ruled a no contest. When a weight-drained Edwards relinquished his title just weeks after their controversial fight, he would never has guessed that the decision would lead to him being cast adrift for so long. He has boxed just three times since.
Promotional and management deals have come and gone and time and time again, Edwards has spoken confidently about having all of the pieces in places for a return to the top level. It just never happened.
With inactivity threatening to bring his career to a nondescript, premature close, Edwards decided to take a risk. He cut his last tie and decided to manage himself. The worry was that he would be left drifting aimlessly – waiting for somebody to offer him an opportunity. Instead he has smartly charted his own course. On Friday night, he returns as a bantamweight and makes his debut for Wasserman when he headlines against former the EBU bantamweight champion Georges Ory. Their fight will be screened live on terrestrial television platform Channel 5.
Rather than continuing to let the disappointments and frustrations of the past few years hold him down, Edwards is using them as lessons.
“I’m so much more wiser, so much more intelligent and so much more knowledgeable about this boxing game,” he told BoxingScene. “I’ve been at the top, been at the peak and been at the bottom. I’ve gone up ladders and down snakes in the sport and it was time for me to manage myself. It’s been the best decision I’ve ever made. I’ve been able to make contact with people who I was getting knocked back from because it wasn’t my relationship. It was out of my control. I’ve made up with a lot of promoters all around and cracked my own deal with Wasserman. It’s knowledge, power, and although this is a rebirth for me as a fighter, it also starts me on my new journey as a manager.
“Right now I’m managing myself, enjoying it and learning a lot along the way. In the future I probably will manage other fighters. Where I am right now I need to put 120% into my own career but these are valuable lessons and this journey has been through unknown territory, but I know I can develop relationships and networks now. In the future when Team Edwards management is out there, I’ll have learned and be well grounded and it’ll keep me in boxing for many years.”
Ory is the former European bantamweight champion but the 32 year old Frenchman has never been in the ring with a fighter of Edwards’ calibre.
But, just as Edwards’ record doesn’t give a true picture of his level of activity, his reputation and previous accomplishments count for little, pre-fight. This is a brand new start, and Edwards is going to have to prove that he is still more than capable of dealing with fighters like Ory, who will come to London believing that the rusty Edwards can be beaten.
Edwards is leaving as little to chance as possible. He has the final say on which direction his career goes, and is being as thorough in his preparations outside the gym as he is inside it. When he was presented with a list of possible opponents for this weekend’s fight, he compared it to his own shortlist. He had already circled the Frenchman as the ideal opponent to return against.
“It’s a legitimate fight, “ Edwards said. “I’ve picked the right opponent because I wanted to bounce back with a challenge and be on the mark. It’s nice to be feeling wanted again and I know that on April 12th when I go out there and put in the performance that I know I’m capable of and that I’m producing in training, Charlie Edwards will be back. It gives me goosebumps. Everyone will have forgotten about this s*** period.
“I am a scalp. He’ll think that I’ve had inactivity but that’ll be his biggest weakness because I haven’t been inactive. Maybe in the ring and towards all of the lights, cameras and action but in the gym I’ve been on demon time. I’ve been grafting and obsessed. I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol in 18-20 months. I’ve gone obsessed with boxing. The dark time has changed me into a different person and the hardship that I’ve had to endure has made me a different monster. I’ve really gone all in on this like my life depends on it because boxing is my life.”
That may sounds like a lot of weight to carry into the ring but Edwards isn’t putting himself under any undue pressure to make his return to television screens a spectacular one. He has learned that almost everybody who watches boxing or is involved in the workings of the sport has short memories. If things were to go badly on Friday, he would be forgotten again quickly.
Until fight night at least, Edwards is going to concentrate solely on himself, and on implementing the physical and mental improvements he has been working on.
“I’ve learned through this hard time that I’m not in this sport to impress others. I’m in it to look myself in the mirror and impress myself,” he said. “I do every single thing I can do correctly so whatever comes on the night is going to be natural and everything that I’ve sacrificed and consistently put in. I know that when I flow and don’t force things and my mind is right – and it’s the best it has ever been – that I can beat anyone. Anyone in the world.
“We’ve done our homework, Stephen Smith is putting the game plan into me and we know what we’re looking for and the dangers. We’re not looking past this guy. From the morning until I go to bed, every day I give 120 per cent. I know that when I’m on my best on the night, everything will come to fruition. I won’t have to force anything. It’ll all be presented in front of me. I’m visualising things and it’s all becoming second nature. I’ve already been in that ring in my mind. When I get in that ring I just need to use my intellect and my reactions and I know I’ll produce a very dangerous performance.”
As Edwards said, his resurgence is being guided by former world title challenger Stephen Smith.
Edwards is attacking the second part of his boxing career with a new mindset and it was important that he found a trainer who is not only capable of teaching him, but who is equally ambitious. His enthusiasm and energy has been more than matched by Smith, who is also at the very beginning of the next phase of his life.
Smith, 38, was an outstanding amateur who competed at the highest level as a professional. Like Edwards, the Liverpudlian has seen everything the sport has to offer, and is using his own experiences to forge a career as a trainer.
Edwards believes that the two have found each other at the perfect time, and that they are at the start of a successful journey.
“Everything’s led me to this moment,” he said. “I feel like I’ve got the right people around me. Stephen’s boxing brain is on a whole other level. He’s the best coach I’ve worked with. He’s very humble and very determined. Mentally he knows how camps go. He knows that thoughts can creep into your head and he’s able to discuss things. He knows about big fights and about making weight. His way of coaching me is just what I’ve needed for my whole career.
“I feel like everyone is going to see the best Charlie Edwards and that the years that we spend together moving forward into the peak years of my career are going to be unbelievable. I will owe a lot to Stephen because it’s a match made in heaven. With him having been in the lower weight classes and not retired for very long, he’s very quick and his reaction times are very quick. The flow state is still there. He’s still boxer.
“We’re in a new era. Boxing is changing. Great fighters, former world champions and world-title challengers like Andy Lee, Stephen Smith, Anthony Crolla and Jamie Moore are coming in and they’ve lived and breathed the sport of boxing. They understand it. They’ve done everything in their career and now they’re passing their experience on. In this next generation of coaching, British boxing is gonna go, ‘Boom’ and – luckily for me – I’ve used my brain wisely and picked the right man to take me a hell of a long way.”