(September 17, 2020) — Former flyweight world champion Charlie Edwards will test out the bantamweight waters in a 10-rounder against Kyle Williams on Saturday, Sept. 26 as the co-feature to WBA/IBF junior welterweight world champion Josh Taylor’s title defense against Apinun Khongsong in London. Taylor-Khongsong and Edwards-Williams will stream live and exclusively on ESPN+ beginning at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, with undercard bouts at 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT.
Edwards (15-1, 1 NC, 6 KOs), from the London borough of Croydon, won the WBC flyweight world title in December 2018 with a one-sided decision over Cristofer Rosales, then defended it three months later with a shutout decision over Angel Moreno. He nearly lost his world title via knockout to Julio Cesar Martinez last August on the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Luke Campbell undercard, but the bout was ruled a no contest after Martinez hit Edwards while he was on the canvas. Williams (11-2, 3 KOs) is coming off a split decision defeat last October against an over-the-weight Ionut Baluta for the vacant WBO European bantamweight title.
In undercard action on ESPN+:
- Former Irish amateur superstar and 2016 Olympian Davey Oliver Joyce (12-1, 9 KOs) will make the first defense of his WBO European junior featherweight title against Baluta (13-2, 2 KOs) in a 10-rounder. Joyce moved down to junior featherweight following his shocking knockout loss to Leigh Wood last October in a bid for the WBO European featherweight title. In March, Baluta authored one of 2020’s biggest upsets, stunning former junior featherweight world champion TJ Doheny via eight-round unanimous decision.
- Top prospect Willy Hutchinson (12-0, 8 KOs), who notched a first-round KO last month, will face an opponent to be named in a 10-round super middleweight fight.
- Junior middleweight upstart George Davey (2-0) will see action in a four-round bout. The Queensberry Promotions prospect won a pair of Haringey Box Cup titles as an amateur.
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