Chris Edwards Beat Abmerk Shindjuu

DATE: 2/19/2010

TITLE: Commonwealth Flyweight Title

VENUE: Fenton Manor Sports Complex, Stoke, Staffordshire, UK

PREDICTION: Chris Edwards

RESULT - Chris Edwards - Points win

Chris Edwards did manage to bring some joy to the Potteries fans as he regained the Commonwealth flyweight title with a hard fought, unanimous decision over Namibia’s Abmerk Shindjuu.

In typical fashion Edwards pressed forward from the off and swept the first three rounds with little trouble but in the fourth the African proved he wasn’t in the ring to make up the numbers and bloodied Edwards’ nose with a superb counter punch.

In the fifth it the tide began to turn as Shindjuu upped his work rate and began to back the former champion up.

However Edwards, who was once pegged as little more than a journeyman after losing six of his first seven pro bouts, turned the screw once more in rounds six through to nine.

The fight hung in the balance during the championship rounds as Edwards, now also bleeding from a nick above his left eye, continued to force the fight but often found himself walking onto Shindjuu’s crafty left hooks and uppercuts to both the head and body

It was always going to be a case of what the judges liked best; Edwards constant pressuring or Shindjuu’s clearner punching. In the end they each elected for the former rather than the latter by 115 points to 114.