BRITISH boxer Sunny Edwards made a heartbreaking admission to his corner moments before retiring at 28 years old.
Edwards hung up his gloves following defeat at the hands of Galal Yafai in Birmingham last night.
The flyweight fighter suffered just his second defeat of his career but decided that it was time to bring an end to his time as a pro fighter.
And it appears he knew that it was time to call it quits while the fight was still going after footage emerged of the Sutton-born fighter heartbreakingly telling his corner he didn’t want to fight.
In the middle of the bout Edwards could be heard saying to his team: “Do you want me to be real with you? I don’t want to be here”.
Yafai had dominated the fight from the first bell and had hit Edwards with an onslaught of heavy blows, forcing him onto the ropes within the first minute.
The referee was forced to stop the fight in the sixth round as Yafai continued his dominance.
Edwards announced he was walking away from the sport after the fight, citing injuries as the reason he can’t carry on.
He said: “I’ll be real, if I won the fight, I was going into the sunset.
“This is the last thing that I wanted to do, get that scalp of the Olympic [champion].
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“If I’m being perfectly honest, my body’s falling apart, man. I’ve got bad ankles, I’ve got bad wrists, I’ve got bad shoulders, I’ve got a bad back – everything about me is bad at this moment.”
He added: “If I’m perfectly honest, win, lose or draw – my team knows this – win, lose or draw, I was retiring tonight.
“I don’t have the same energy that I had for this sport — for the process. I’ll be perfectly real.
“I put so much in for the first six, seven years of my career that I just needed a break.
“I needed a break really before this fight, but I always want to compete with the best, and whilst I was the No. 1, I wanted to be involved in the biggest fights, the biggest events.
“But I knew — I knew — I said the whole way that it was going to be hard tonight.
“But the Sunny Edwards from 12 months ago would’ve gone longer. I’ll be real.”
Edwards retires with a record of 21-2 since turning pro in September 2016.
