The pivotal between the two best British flyweights in the world will commence on November 30th and has been given more relevance after the WBC decided to make the WBC interim flyweight title available for their bout. With the WBC flyweight title set to be fought over in 3 days’ time, there is therefore the [mild] possibility for the winner to face the future WBC 112 lbs world champion. However, with past WBC interim champions only having become a world champion by being promoted or elevated, the winner of Edwards-Yafai might not benefit at all from attaining a WBC inteirm title. Their now-confirmed title bout will be hosted in the bp pulse LIVE arena in Birmingham [Yafai’s hometown] on November 30.
The upcoming bout is parituclarly significant as it will see the best British flyweights (112 lbs) meet in the ring, and with neither able to afford a loss at this point of their careers, both Sunny Edwards (21-1, 4 KO’s) and Galal Yafai (8-0, 6 KO’s) are competing for their careers just as much as they are seeking to put themselves into a position to challenge for a world title.
With the addition of the WBC interim title, however, the possibility of the winner becoming a WBC world champion has only diminished given the history of WBC interim champions.
The only WBC interim champions to have actually had the opportunity to become a world champion were elevated. This includes Dominican fighter Alberto Puello (23-0, 10 KO’s), who was elevated to WBC super lightweight (140 lbs) champion after the previous incumbent champion―Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KO’s)―decided to vacate his title.
This year, American champion Mario Barrios (29-2, 18 KO’s) also became the WBC world welterweight (147 lbs) champion after Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KO’s) indicated his intent to remain at super welterweight (154 lbs). Dominican fighter Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KO’s) also attained his WBC middleweight (160 lbs) title after Jermall Charlo’s (33-0, 22 KO’s) out-of-ring circumstances forced the sanctioning body to intervene and strip him of the title.
With all of the aforementioned fighters, a large degree of fortune seemed to have played a role in them acquiring their titles and with the vacant WBC world flyweight title set to be decided between Japanese contender Kenshiro Teraji (23-1, 14 KO’s) and Nicaraguan contender Crisofer Rosales (37-6, 22 KO’s) on October 13th, there is no guarantee the winner of Edwards-Yafai will gain an actual opportunity to face the winner or see themselves elevated to world champion in the near future.
The last WBC interim champion to receive the opportunity to face the WBC world champion was Japanese fighter Yudai Shigeoka (9-1, 5 KO’s) after defeating WBC world minimumweight (105 lbs) champion Panya Pradabsri (43-2, 27 KO’s) in October of 2023. Prior to that, it wasn’t until American WBC interim champion Joseph Diaz (33-6-1, 15 KO’s) faced WBC world champion Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KO’s) in 2021 that an interim titlist gained the opportunity to vie for the world title. Diaz would go on to lose his match against Haney by unanimous decision (UD).
A further notable detail of the fighters that were elevated to world champion is that they are aligned with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) through TGB Promotions. Given both fighters are signed to rival promotion of PBC/TGB in Matchroom Boxing, this further makes it unlikely the winner’s status will be of actual benefit to their career.
That would mean that the winner of Edwards-Yafai would need to rely on the winner of Teraji-Rosales vacating their WBC title, for whatever reason, to become a world champion.
Aside from the world title purgatory scenario that Sunny Edwards and Galal Yafai face, their all-British bout is certainly one of the more significant British matches of the year, and their bout is set to herald in a new prospective world champion for the UK depending on the winner’s performance.
