Two of the best flyweights in the world are set to fight in March.

Just not against each other.

Unbeaten IBF flyweight titlist Sunny Edwards will head back to Dubai for the second defense of his title, as he faces former title challenger Muhammad Waseem. The bout will top a Probellum Fight Night show set for March 19 at Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

WBC flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Martinez (18-1, 14KOs; 2NC) will move up in weight to face former four-division champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (50-3, 41KOs) atop a March 5 DAZN show in San Diego. Martinez would replace lineal/WBA “Super” junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada (42-3, 28KOs), who tested positive for Covid and was forced to withdraw from the scheduled rubber match with Gonzalez.

Martinez has been targeted for months by Edwards (17-0, 4KOs), even predating his IBF flyweight title win over Moruti Mhtalane last April at the famed York Hall in Bethnal Green, London. Rumors have swirled of a potential unification bout, though largely news to the unbeaten Brit who was hopeful of such a showdown though skeptical of such rumors materializing.  

“Seeing the news [of Martinez facing Gonzalez], I gave the green light on the back-up plan,” Edwards told BoxingScene.com. “I refuse to let Martinez avoiding the fight with me stall my career.”

Edwards is coming off a dominant twelve-round, unanimous decision win over then-unbeaten mandatory challenger Jayson Mama last December at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. The bout served as the makeshift main event for the first Probellum Fight Night card, with Edwards returning to the same corner of the world for his next title defense.

Pakistan’s Waseem (12-1, 8KOs) enters riding a four-fight win streak as he prepares for his fourth appearance in Dubai within his last five fights. In his most recent, Waseem claimed a twelve-round, unanimous decision win over former title challenger Rober Barrera last November at Motorspace Dubai Investment Park.

While not the same as a title unification bout, a fight with the 34-year-old Waseem represents a credible challenge. It comes two weeks after Martinez’s scheduled clash with Gonzalez, which still leaves room to revisit old plans should Martinez—win or lose on March 5—opt to return to flyweight and defend his title.

Either way, Edwards will continue to proceed with his own career free of restrictions.

“I was hoping to use the freedom of having a voluntary defense to make the biggest fight out there for me,” stated Edwards. “I believed at one point we’d be fighting next and then it sort of went quiet.

“We had other viable routes in case Martinez moved up which I thought was likely.”

Also announced for the March 19 show is an intriguing junior welterweight clash between former WBA champ Regis Prograis (26-1, 22KOs) and Belfast’s Tyrone McKenna (22-2-1, 6KOs).

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox