Edner “Cherry Bomb” Cherry Promises to Shine in '09

WBC USNBC Lightweight champion Edner “Cherry Bomb” Cherry (24-6, 12 KO's) has stated that 2009 will be his year. In early 2009, Cherry will be stepping back into the ring for the first time since his loss to WBC light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley back in September. Since that fight, Cherry has been training hard with head trainer Pete Fernandez, and they have been making significant changes to his training procedures and will be returning to the lightweight division. Cherry says the training changes will help him get back on a winning streak, help return him to the top of the lightweight division. 

Despite the loss to Bradley, 2008 was a good year for Cherry. On May 21st, Cherry knocked out former IBF lightweight champion Steve Johnston in round ten at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina. That fight was the headliner for a tribute to the troops. With victories like that and his previous two wins over Wes Ferguson, a Floyd Mayweather Jr. protoge, Cherry states it will be good to get back to what got him on to the top. Also in 2008, Cherry was the subject of a national rumor, stating he had a run in with Floyd Maywether Jr in a Las Vegas, Neveda nightclub and wound up knocking Floyd Jr. out cold. This rumor was proven false, but gave Cherry some press.

On the 6th February 2009 at the Wicomico Civic Center, Salisbury, Maryland two light heavyweight contenders will meet, the winner is likely to go on and compete for one of the major titles and the loser will be left by the wayside with the prospect of rebuilding a career in tatters.  The two light heavyweights in question are Yusaf Mack and Chris Henry.

Mack has already been in this position twice before when falling short against former IBF champion Alejandro Berrio and title contender Librado Andrade, he knows this could be his last chance to really make his mark.  Mack has turned things around since the loss to Andrade and has looked impressive in his last three fights with wins over Ernesto Zamora, Daniel Judah and Omar Pittman.  He is confident and ready to take full advantage of the opportunity, and has been quoted in saying “I know I have made mistakes regarding my conditioning and preparation in the past, I relied on my ability alone and was killing myself to make weight, but things have changed, I am stronger and fitter than I have ever been in my career, I have changed everything in regards to my preparation for fights and now keep to a strict diet and take regular vitamins which I never did in the past, I am living and training how a true professional should.  Not only that, I am fully focused on fulfilling a promise I made to my father on his death bed that I would win a world title for him, as far as I am concerned Henry is in my way of keeping that promise I will be putting him to sleep, I am suppose to be here and I will continue to prove that to all my doubters out there.  I have the right team behind me and I have been with my trainer John Tandy for nearly a year and he has changed my life, I am a different person to the one that lost those fights, I will not be losing again.

Henry has also competed at the highest level when he faced WBC champion Adrian Diaconu at fairly late notice in the Romanian’s hometown, Henry pushed Diaconu all the way and at times looked like he may become the first man to beat him, he has recovered well from the points loss and won his last two fights against decent opposition, his record an impressive 23-1 with 18 wins inside the distance.  He is the bigger man fighting his whole career at light heavyweight and cruiserweight and will be confident he is the stronger of the two.

Also an interesting addition to the undercard is hot young unbeaten middleweight prospect Fernando Guerrero who is currently 12-0 with 11 stoppages, his opponent is yet to be named.  However he will be looking to impress in front of his home town fans, Guerrero had a busy 2008 with 11 fights and he is looking to move through the rankings quickly and establish himself as a top contender in the near future.

This fight will be shown live on ESPN2 and the main event of Mack v Henry will be for Mack’s NABA and Henry’s NABF titles over 12 rounds.