Sunny ‘Showtime’ Edwards 15-0 (4) expects his world title challenge against IBF flyweight champion Moruti ‘Baby Face’ Mthalane 39-2 (26) will go the distance at York Hall in London on Friday night.
The 25-year-old from Croydon has been 12 rounds in his past two fights.
“I think I will have to move around and have a look for the whole 12 rounds, to be honest,” Edwards said. “You don’t go head on against an immovable object, I’ve got to try and work around it for as long as I can.
“This is definitely a 12-round fight and I have trained for 15. All I know is, I wouldn’t try and beat him in an arm wrestle, so I am not going to try and beat him in a fight!”
South African Mthalane, 38, is undefeated in 10 world championship bouts. His last loss was to multi-weight world champion Nonito Donaire in 2008.
Mthalane’s trainer Colin Nathan said his boxer still had plenty left in the tank despite fast approaching 40.
“Moruti isn’t human when he’s in beast mode,” Nathan said to Fightnews. “At his age, he’s a freak of nature; his intensity is insane.”
“Pain will always be there and felt; I am human,” the evergreen Mthalane said to Sowetan Live. “I have been hurt a few times in boxing, but what has helped me is my ability not to show my opponent that he has hurt me. Fortunately, I have not been knocked out.”
Edwards is familiar with Mthalane after spending time together in a previous training camp in Ukraine.
“It is a friendly one since we were together in Ukraine and we have got each other on social media, so it has always been a ‘good luck’ or ‘well done’ before and after fights. He is top of the division, top of the tree and he is where everybody else wants to be,” Edwards said.
“He is heavily avoided, we know that. I think he’s had like 10 world title fights and nobody has ever given him a unification shot. He has proved time and time again he will be the away fighter, even as a world champion.
“I think you have to understand the beast I am getting in the ring with, to be honest. I do.
“When I got out of the ring in Ukraine he said I would 100 percent be a world champion, when I asked him for a picture. Hopefully that 100 percent will be on April 30 and against him, but he is such a nice man and a great champion.
“I do genuinely feel honoured to be sharing a ring with him, but all the friendliness will fall by the wayside when that first bell goes. I just need to win and having that world title would mean the absolute world to me and it would put me up there with the top British fighters right now.”
