The historic Alexandria Palace, in Muswell Hill, London, was the impressive setting for a Sunday afternoon of boxing. Boxxer promotions treated fans to a card packed with highly touted prospects. One of those prospects had made the journey from Penygraig, Rhondda, South Wales.
Rhys Edwards started his professional journey in 2018 and has signed a three-fight deal with the promoter. His first opponent, of the deal, was Burkina Faso’s Alexis Boureima Kabore in a featherweight contest. The hugely experienced African boxer has been 12 rounds with current WBC World Featherweight champion Rey Vargas. Kabore, at 39 years old, has seen better days, but, in recent contests, he extended Archie Sharp and Thomas Patrick Ward the full ten rounds.
Welshman Edwards’s last outing, on the Eubank vs Williams card, was back in February. He scored a shut-out, over six rounds, against Russian Ruslan Berchuk. In the same month, Kabore had scored a TKO over Michael Tagoe, in Ghana.
Edwards entered the ring to vocal support, from travelling fans, and looked comfortable in the setting of the professionally presented show. Once the bell rang, we saw an assured, composed performance from the 22-year-old.
The young orthodox boxer controlled the action against the wily campaigner. A fantastic jab was, often followed by sharp combinations. The African came forward throwing the jab, which, was mainly negated by Edwards. He threw body shots but struggled to sustain attacks, as Rhys was fluidly mobile and sharp with counter-attacks. Kabore never looked hurt but did get bothered
by some tasty-looking lefts to the body.
The fight was originally, set for eight rounds but was cut to six; after a few rounds Kabore was trying to showboat, in an attempt to slow down his opponent but he wasn’t given much respite. Rhys did the rounds comfortably and fought a smart fight. Kabore is tough and knows how to survive but wasn’t in the contest.
The referee Chas Coakley’s score was 60-54 for Rhys Edwards, who improves to 13-0, 4 KOs. Alexis Boureima Kabore’s record stands at 29-7, 8 KOs, in what was, possibly, his final fight. Trained by Gary Lockett, the talented Rhondda prospect will be looking at doing longer-distance fights and, hopefully, start competing for titles.
