Mama missed his second chance again

By LITO DELOS REYES

DAVAO CITY – Undefeated Jayson “Smasher” Mama of Gen. Santos City will not challenge IBF World flyweight champion Sunny “Showtime” Edwards of the United Kingdom after the champion injured his ankle while training for the fight set this Saturday in Copper Box Arena.

“Sakit kaayo para sa akoa. OK lang (It hurts so much for me. It’s OK),” said Mama, who learned about the bad news after he and his manager Jim Claude “JC” Manangquil and trainer Ronerex Dalut arrived from Dubai the other day.

“I’ve trained really hard for this fight. I’ve sacrificed a lot. Me and my team stayed in Dubai for 12 days so we could enter the UK just for Edwards to pull out of the fight for an ankle during fight week,” said Mama.

Edwards could give medical reports.

“ButI don’t believe it. I think he just doesn’t want to fight me because it’s too risky for him,” added Mama.
Mama had first challenge to then-IBF World flyweight champion Moruti “Baby Face” Mthalane of South Africa on Dec. 20, 2020 in South Africa.

But it was cancelled. Instead, Mthalane fought and got lost to Edwards by a unanimous decision last April 30, 2021 at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London.

Mama and his team are now going home back to the Philippines.

“It’s really frustrating to see a champion pull out of the fight during fight week. Who suffers an ankle injury during fight week while you do light training?” said Manangquil.

“No matter what Sunny Edwards does he has to deal with his mandatory challenger Jayson Mama or he can vacate his belt,” said Manangquil.

Meanwhile, MP President Sean Gibbons said that “Edwards has injured his ankle while he was walking during the weekend.’
“We can’t believe it. I am just gutted for Jayson. He did everything he was supposed to do in preparation for this IBF World Title fight,” said Gibbons.

“Under these terrible CV 19 conditions he had to jump through hoops just to get to England and when he landed he was told Sunny Edwards had turned his ankle!!,”said Gibbons.

“I find this to be highly suspect. Jayson is a man of faith and knows his trust in God will make things right and he will be IBF World Champion one day soon,” added Gibbons.