Sunny Edwards never had any issue facing Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world.

He’s just curious why that same energy never came back in return.

“He’s talking about it will be a home fight,” Edwards said of his upcoming IBF/WBO flyweight unification bout. “Last year, they were telling me they were coming to the UK to take my belt. It never happened. He got the WBO title and fought home.”  

Edwards and Rodriguez will collide in a battle of unbeaten flyweight titlists this Saturday on DAZN from Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. It will mark the first stateside appearance for the 27-year-old Brit, who did not offer any resistance over when or where the fight would take place.

Rodriguez (18-0, 11KOs) hails from San Antonio, Texas and trains out of Robert Garcia’s facility in Riverside, California. The greater Phoenix area holds a special place in his heart, though. Saturday’s bout is less than 30 minutes from the Footprint Center, the home to the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and where a 22-year-old Rodriguez outpointed Carlos Cuadras to win the WBC junior bantamweight title last February.

By year’s end, Rodriguez opted to drop down to flyweight and openly spoke of not only one day challenging Edwards (21-0, 4KOs), but a willingness to cross the Atlantic Ocean and face him in jolly old England. That changed some time after Rodriguez won the WBO flyweight belt in a 12-round decision over Cristian Gonzalez this past April in San Antonio. Edwards signed with Matchroom Boxing one week prior, a move he knew was necessary to secure unification bouts with Rodriguez and a long-desired showdown versus WBC flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Martinez.

The latter clash was discussed at length last summer and briefly mentioned earlier this spring but is no closer to becoming a reality. Edwards eventually landed the Rodriguez fight but only after he grew tired of waiting on his divisional rival and accompanying team to make good on past promises.

“They said they would fight in the UK and it never happened,” noted Edwards. “The fight gets talked, and it was never mentioned that it had to be UK. I never said it has to be there. I don’t care about that.

I didn’t stall Eddie [Hearn, head of Matchroom Boxing] about getting more money, or a 16-foot or 24-foot ring. I don’t care because all that shows signs of a team that doesn’t have full belief in their system.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox