Stoke’s 31 year old British super-flyweight champion Chris Edwards put the finishing touches to his training schedule last night with a light run and is now relaxing before the first defence of his title on Friday night.

Edwards became the first Potteries based boxer to secure a Lonsdale belt for 85 years when he defeated Jamie McDonnell in Wigan last December. At Barnsley’s Metrodome on Friday night he will face Nottingham’s Andy Bell, the current English super-flyweight champion, in a twelve round defence of his title.

9 years Edwards’ junior, Bell is naturally bigger than the Stoke man: Bell is a natural bantamweight stepping down whereas Edwards is a natural flyweight stepping up. Edwards has the advantage however of being accustomed to fighting bigger men and, unlike Bell, has successfully negotiated his way through twelve rounds previously.

At only 5ft tall Edwards also faces a significant height and reach deficit over the much taller Bell. In his favour however, Edwards faces no difficulty in making the weight and was well within the BBBoC’s parameters at his Board attended check weigh-in last night. The official weigh-in takes place in a Barnsley hotel at 2 pm on Thursday when the pair will meet for the first time.

The evening’s proceedings will also see Jamie McDonnell and Lee Haskins face off in an eliminator to meet the winner of the Edwards Bell contest. Stoke light-welterweight Gary Reid was also to have taken part in the event but his rematch with John Fewkes has been cancelled.

“I am itching to get into the ring on Friday,” announced Edwards, “I need three more wins before I can keep the belt and I want to do that as soon as possible.”

“I’m taking nothing for granted though, Andy Bell is a good fighter and will be just as keen to win the belt as I am. I know what I need to do to get past him and as long as I stick to the game plan and listen to my corner during the fight I am confident that I can bring the belt back to Stoke again.”

“To be honest, the support that I’ve had from people locally has been fantastic and I’m very proud to be representing Stoke. It spurs me on to do even better now.”

The fight is part of a Frank Maloney promoted event and will be televised live by Sky Sports.

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