ONE thing we have already learned about apprentice pro Jamie Edwards is that the lad can bang.
And he has already banged out fighters – admittedly journeymen with losing records – who are near impossible to bang out.
Three fights into his pro journey, good judges are tipping the 26-year-old to be the dark horse of the super-lightweight division.
Edwards, the latest pro prospect from famous Coventry club Triumph’s conveyor belt of champs, is now looking to build momentum after progress was stalled by injury.
He snapped a bicep tendon in sparring and that, along with other niggling injuries, wrote off 2024.
“It’s been frustrating and stressful,” Jamie, who fights under the BCB banner, said. “When that happens, it’s disappointing, but part of the learning experience. You watch all the other boxers you know doing well and you’re recovering. It’s very frustrating.”
He bounced back last month at the Eastside Rooms, Birmingham, with a second round stoppage of teak tough Eastern European Simas Volosinas.
In the amateurs ranks, Jamie – by day a technician at JLR – won the Haringey Cup, collected Midlands titles and made a single appearance for England. He still trains at Triumph.
As a pro, he hit the ground running with a second round stoppage of durable Stefan Vincent in October, 2023. In over 30 contests, only one other fighter has prevented Vincent from hearing the final bell.
Of that performance, I wrote: “Vincent simply had no answer to aggressive Edwards’ right hand and was rightly saved at two minutes two seconds of the second. By then, the Christchurch boxer’s nose was bloody, his legs had the strength of wet bootlaces in the wind.”
Things didn’t go to plan for hard-hitting Edwards in his second fight. He could only draw with Stu Greener and appeared to flag in the four rounder.
“Stu’s very tough, weathered the storm and I emptied the tank too early,” Jamie said. “My first fight was a real high and I expected that again. That was a valuable lesson learned.”
Edwards is level-headed about life in the hardest game – there are no grandiose boasts of big things.
“I’m doing an apprenticeship,” he said, “I’m still learning the rhythm and timing. I’m still learning and seeing how far it will take us. I want this year to be a busy year.”
“I have the power, the power is there – it’s about learning the other things needed and using them correctly.
“The pace is one of the big differences from the amateurs. In the amateurs, it’s a sprint, in the pros you can take your time and that’s what I’m adapting to.”
Edwards, as he says, has the power. He is now being taught the other things needed for glory.
