By Rob Tebbutt
ROB McCracken has praised Galal Yafai following his dominant sixth-round TKO win over Sunny Edwards in Birmingham and earmarked the flyweight star as a potential Hall of Fame fighter.
Jafai (9-0, 7 KOs) produced the best performance of his career in dissecting former IBF flyweight champion Edwards (21-2, 4 KOs) on Saturday night, turning what was billed as a fascinating ’50-50′ match into something as a mismatch with a stunning display of pressure combat and combined hitting.
“Yeah, he boxed very well,” McCracken said BN.
“He had a really, really good training camp, really good sparring. He was in really good shape, and he was boxing not too long ago, a couple of months ago, so he was really sharp.
“I thought it was the right fight at the right time for Galal. Frank Smith brought it up initially, we talked about it for a few weeks, and then we agreed. Galal was happy with it and it pushed his career forward. (He) took it dead serious in his preparations and wanted to give a really good performance. I think he did that and, obviously, against a top fighter in Sunni.”
Rob McCracken and Galal Yafai
With the fight pitting Yafai’s action style against the fast, outside boxing skills of Edwards, the onus was on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion to force the pace from the opening bell – and he would do so with devastating effect; charging out of the blocks and hurting Edwards in the first thirty seconds of the contest with a right hook to the head.
“He (Yafaiyev) is very good at closing the gap.”
“He is an Olympic champion. If you’re a British boxer and you become an Olympic gold medallist, you have to be a little special to close the gap. He (Jafai) knows how to close the gap.
“Sunni is very difficult. He made some big shots there and he answered until the end. But when you’re getting hit in the temple and you’re getting hard shots to the body from someone who’s not only ruthless, but in good shape and knows what he’s doing, it’s very difficult for an opponent.”
Away from Yafai’s performance, one of the main talking points to come out of the fight was the behavior of Edwards, 28, who announced his retirement immediately after the fight.
Having coached both Yafai and Edwards during their time with the Great Britain team, McCracken admitted his surprise that Edwards had called time on his career, but said he hoped Croydon would return to the ring at some point in the future.
“Yeah, it’s a surprise,” McCracken admitted.
“But look, he’s his own man, Sunny Edwards. He always was. Hopefully, from my point of view, that’s not the last we see of him. Maybe when he thinks about it, he looks at it and thinks ‘I can go back and get to the top‘ because it has the ability to.
McCracken, however, was adamant in his belief that Jafai has all the necessary tools to reach the top of the sport, even hinting that he thinks Jafai could follow in the footsteps of long-time student, IBHOF member and former super-middleweight champion Carl Froch,
“Galal Jafai has made it again and is onward and upward.”
“He’s motivated, driven and determined – so it’s a really good journey.” Me and Lee Pullen, we’ve been working with Galal and Gary Hale, who didn’t make it tonight, and let’s keep it up.
“Galal continues to gain experience at world level and let’s see if, hopefully, he can follow Karl Froch, who was here tonight, he was in the dressing room… let’s see if Galal can follow in Karl’s footsteps and become a world champion, fighting this battle for unification and who knows? One day, he (Yafai) could join Carl in the Hall of Fame.