“You learn your biggest lessons from the smallest margins of losses,” said Charlie Edwards. 

“I can only showcase that. I can understand the criticism. I’m an older, wiser, maturer man to be able to read that and not take it to heart. ‘Come on, Charlie – now it’s about mixing them two [styles] together and once you do you’re gonna be an unbelievable fighter.’ It was hard with the aftermath, but helped me push into a new direction, which I’m looking forward to. Putting the wrongs right and staying active.”

Edwards was reflecting on the potentially damaging defeat by Andrew Cain that threatened the progress he had made since relaunching his career.

For a fighter of 32 years old he remains fresh. He is also – having perhaps been taken for granted when he reigned as WBC flyweight champion in a considerably more successful era for British boxing – despite that defeat among the British fight scene’s greatest world-level hopes.

Edwards had relaunched his career in 2024 in the bantamweight division under a new trainer in Stephen Smith and with new promoters and a new broadcaster in Wasserman and Channel 5. After a period of considerable inactivity he recorded successive victories over Georges Ory and Thomas Essomba to earn the European title, before his younger brother Sunny’s retirement. In March he was then matched with Cain, the defending and heavy-handed British and Commonwealth champion, and – almost unthinkably given that ahead of the fight with Ory he spoke of the need to make up for lost time and mistakes made in steering his career – he lost after struggling to perform. 

That the date with Julio Cesar Martinez in 2019 that ended in a third-round stoppage became a no contest meant that Cain had inflicted only the second defeat of Edwards’ career. Edwards had become almost irrelevant thereafter until fighting Ory, however, and to the extent that he was not only fighting to recover a sense of momentum and his confidence, but to re-establish his reputation as a talented fighter and one in which the widespread followers of British boxing could again invest their faith.

“I’ll be real,” he continued, to BoxingScene. “It can’t get any darker than it was. I’ve been to the bottom of the pile; I dug myself out of the graveyard. I’m in a much better position now. [Against Cain I was] back in an arena for the first time in five years, with my name back in the lights when I was like a ghost. Nothing can be as bad as where I’ve come from. It’s the resilience in me. I’m experienced. I’ve been through every lesson now. 

“Bad management; bad choices [contributed]. I’m wiser; I’m older; I’m more mature, and the hardships have built character. I look at things different; my mindset’s completely different. I’m grateful to be here and to be back on the big stage and for whatever’s coming next. I’ve got faith that I’ll get the big nights and the big moments again. I’m no way yesterday’s fighter; I’m no way a shot fighter. The work I’ve put in behind the scenes is still yet to be seen in a fight where everything has come together.

“[Previously, after defeat] I would have been on my knees crying and begging for opportunities, but it is what it is. I understand the game. 

“I’ve been on the receiving end against [in 2016, John Riel] Casemiro and Martinez and I was completely weight-drained and fucked and [here] I didn’t even really get touched, so it’s a weird one to process. That’s why I’d been so quiet since the fight. I’d processed it naturally, and there’s a lot of hard questions I had to push on myself. In training I’m answering those questions. I’ve been working on myself. My engine and my fitness; the movement and youthfulness in my legs was probably the best I’ve ever been.

“The hard thing is I still don’t believe I lost. One of the judges had me winning; it was on away soil. I’ve reflected on the fight and I’m disappointed with myself, because I’m an entertaining fighter – I always have been. I weren’t impressed with my performance, even though I still believe I won – I had the better shots, the cleaner shots, and made it an awkward night’s work – I should have let my hands go a little bit more. 

“It feels like I’m grieving, which I never thought would happen to me; I never thought I’d be in a close one like that. It’s been a hard process, because I didn’t get punched up; I hardly got touched; he couldn’t even cut the ring off on me. In the ending I was winning the rounds because I let my hands go a little bit more – had I done that a round earlier I would have won, so it’s painful.”

Edwards, regardless, has since convinced in victory at super flyweight over Salvador Juarez. Unlike in his previous fights on Channel 5 – he lost to Cain on DAZN – he featured on the undercard, but he demonstrated minimal scarring from his previous defeat and, having since even spoken of wanting to challenge the revered Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, he, Smith and Nisse Sauerland of Wasserman are ambitiously planning ahead.

“We’re hoping he gets out again by the end of this year,” Smith told BoxingScene. “Another step up. I want him to go towards the titles at super fly but it’s a bit of a mad one ‘cause at the minute Bam’s got all the belts. He’s trying to go for undisputed. If Bam wins all the belts and then moves on it opens the division up and I want Charlie to go and fight for one of the titles and be in and amongst them. 

“There’s not that many big names aside from Bam, so he’s as good as anyone else in that division to go and become world champion again; become a two-weight world champion. I don’t see why he can’t do that. But a lot depends on Bam’s movements and what he does next and what he decides.

“Charlie being Charlie – he’s very driven. He’d jump at the Bam fight because he is that type of person. Where people would try and avoid it he’d want it. I think Bam’s a special fighter – an unbelievable fighter; he can do it all – but it’s a win-win scenario. You either get a massive fight against a global superstar or he moves on and you’re in a division where everyone’s fighting for the scraps and you’ve got an easier route towards a title. It’s a good position to be in, but you’ve got to be there for when he decides to fight you or decides to move on.”

“Charlie’s most likely to fight towards the end of this year; start of next year,” explained Sauerland. “We’re looking at a very big step up; we’re looking at a world title. The UK’s starved of world champions at the moment and Charlie would love to be a two-time world champ.

“There’s the WBA [interim] champion [David] Jimenez, who’d actually be quite an interesting opponent. We’ve already had talks with him. That would be a great fight for him. 

“You need to bring something to the table for Bam Rodriguez. I would presume the aim [for Rodriguez] is to unify the titles, so if Charlie has something to bring to the table, then here we go.”

Edwards was pictured ringside, with his head in his hands, on the evening in 2023 that Rodriguez stopped his brother Sunny. It was the evening on which Rodriguez established himself as one of the world’s very finest and most destructive fighters. It also unfolded, perhaps intimidatingly, with Edwards aware that he was on the verge of returning to the ring.

“Charlie’s one of these pros – he’s just hungry,” said Sauerland. “He’s still hungry; still very professional, and does everything that’s expected of him. He’s a true professional and a joy to work with.

“The last fight was a great fight for him ‘cause it showed what he can do. The Cain fight he could have started a bit earlier to start really putting it on Cain and throwing more shots, but with a guy like Cain you can’t just stand there and trade ‘cause you’re gonna get knocked out. He started a bit late; could have won that fight; maybe misjudged when to start throwing a bit more leather, but you live and learn. Charlie’s lost before; he’s bounced back again now, and I think he’s in line for a world title. 

“He’s very important for Channel 5, and important for us as well. You’ve got a few tiers for us; up and comers; guys who are about to fight for British titles, and he’s our tier one – [along with] the likes of Josh Kelly, Harlem Eubank and Mick Conlan.

“[We similarly once rebuilt] George Groves. George, we signed, just before the [second Carl] Froch fight. He lost; we brought him back against [Christopher] Rebrasse; he fought Badou Jack, he lost. Then we brought him back, and then he won a world title finally [against Fedor Chudinov]. As long as your fights are exciting and people like you I don’t think [defeats] matter. [Chris] Eubank Jnr, for instance, isn’t the greatest fighter but people find him exciting; find him engaging as a person.

“Channel 5 is always going to have a good audience. They’re there to watch boxing. It doesn’t matter in the slightest [that he lost].”

It, increasingly, may prove relevant that the fight with Cain came on DAZN in front of a more dedicated audience and wasn’t seen by the bigger, less committed terrestrial television viewers of Channel 5 who have only ever seen Edwards in victory.

Should he fight again imminently he will build on the sense of momentum recovered against Juarez. If he doesn’t, he will continue to work under Smith in the gym, enhancing the fighter-trainer relationship that, ultimately, remains relatively new.

“It’s a lot more gelling time and getting to know him as a fighter,” said Smith. “In general, Charlie’s a good trainer – he’s good in the gym – and he’s obviously been a world champion so he can perform under the lights. It’s about getting it right on the night. The last one where he was a bit too negative in not letting his hands go – that sort of cost him and when you look back on the cards, he lost the fight by a point, and it was a fight that was more than there for the taking. I don’t think he ever looked second best. 

“When Charlie was making [Cain] miss early, he was making him miss so easily he got set in a rhythm and stuck with it and kept on making him miss but wasn’t really firing back. When he let his hands go he could have done that a round earlier and if he had he’d have won the fight and people would be talking about it for different reasons.

“It was an opportunity lost, because I don’t believe he’s a better fighter than Charlie, which does sound harsh when you’ve gone and beat someone, but I thought he won based more on what Charlie didn’t do. It probably was a setback because in these divisions there’s not much about.

“It was really good for him to get back on the horse [against Juarez]. You’re still a force in a division which hasn’t got much about it.

“Activity’s a key factor in boxing. You see anyone active and fighting regularly – they’re able to build momentum. To keep their eye in – it’s a big thing for them. I do think ring rust plays a part; [inactive fighters are] wasting time. They’re short careers anyway. It’s a fine line, but I’d always rather be active and stay in the ring. He’s lucky in that way, in terms of getting back out again by the end of the year. If it’s another step up then it does push him closer towards the titles in a division where there’s not that many [world-level fighters].

“I thought he boxed really well [against Juarez]. It was a good performance. He took a shot in round one, and then switched on and done what he was meant to. I thought he looked a level above; with his style, the way he is; if he makes them miss and makes them pay he’s good to watch and he showed the level he’s at. He’s got really good legs.

“I’d like him to get another win – hopefully another step up – and then be ready to go for the titles the minute one becomes available or he gets the shot.

“He seems like he’s got the bit between his teeth and wants to prove the point that he’s a much better fighter than that. He’s gone about it the right way by showing up in the gym, performing, and becoming active to go and get the chance to go and show people how good he actually is.”

When he was champion Edwards spoke openly of visualising his victories. When outside of the ring he has struggled psychologically he has relied on his philosophical and spiritual understanding of the world.

There are times that he appears to be persuading himself of a falsehood for the sake of his psyche and yet ignorance can prove a strength for a fighter. Should he succeed in again reigning as a world champion his success will far from be remembered as one of his profession’s greatest comebacks, but the driven, independent Edwards will know, better than any other, that having once risked being forgotten and having felt like a “ghost”, the triumph of his spirit will be one of the most hard-earned and finest of all.

“Andrew Cain’s a dangerous puncher,” he said. “Had I had the approach I did against Martinez or Casemiro, I could have been in a sticky situation. Maybe the past of them fights haunted me a little bit in the early rounds. However, I believe I corrected that towards the end of the fight. I believe this kind of fight and kind of lesson is going to make me a much better fighter. I know what I need to tweak.

“I can make super flyweight, but it would only be for the big fights. I’m not going to crucify myself for a nothing fight. There’s massive fights out there still, and I’ve got a name. We’ll see what the future will hold.

“One fight can change a whole career – we’ve seen that with Dave Allen. The promoters were talking Deontay Wilder but the same promoters were begging him to retire. When you’re needed you’re needed and when you’re not, you’re not. All I can do is stay in the gym.

“The fights are going to come through. There’s going to be prospects who are going to need names for their records; there’s going to be big names out there for me. There’s old rival names that are gonna be out there – like who me and my brother have mixed with. It’s there. 

“You don’t know when the phone’s going to ring for you. I’m a former WBC champion. I’m an Edwards; I’m still here. I’m still ready to go and I still don’t say ‘No’ to fights, so it’s going to come again.

“I’m grateful for every lesson every step of the way. Even the ones that have done me dirty along the way, I thank you because there’s the bigger picture to this, and valuable lessons that have built me to the man I am today and in whatever’s next in my life and the journey I take.”