Edwards vs Curiel in the works for Estrada vs Bam co-feature

Sunny Edwards is coming off a loss to Jesse Rodriguez, Adrian Curiel to Sivenathi Nontshinga

Building on last week’s news from Jake Donovan, ESPN’s Mike Coppinger reports that super flyweight legend Juan Francisco Estrada and unified flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez are finalizing a June 29th showdown in Glendale. Coppinger also confirms an earlier reveal from EverythingBoxing that a flyweight bout between former titlists Sunny Edwards and Adrien Curiel is “in play” to serve as the co-feature.

Edwards (20-1, 4 KO), who lost his IBF title in his fifth defense against Rodriguez last year, had been angling for a clash with light flyweight champ and Matchroom stablemate Sivenathi Nontshinga. “The Special One” has a mandatory rematch with Christian Araneta on the docket, however, so Edwards instead meets “Gatito” Curiel (24-5-1, 5 KO).

Curiel scored one of 2023’s biggest and most violent upsets by flattening Nontshinga in two rounds last November and seemed on pace to repeat in their February rematch, but succumbed to a 10th-round comeback surge to suffer his first-ever stoppage loss.

That was at 108, but Curiel has plenty of experience at flyweight and Edwards has never been the biggest at 112, so size shouldn’t be a factor.

Though we’ve seen Edwards beat pressure-heavy fighters like Felix Alvarado, there’s no telling how he’ll bounce back from such a rough defeat. Should be interesting, at the very least.