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IBF flyweight champion Sunny Edwards beat up a Twitter troll who travelled across the country to challenge him at his gym in Sheffield. Watch the video below:
Edwards, who holds an unbeaten professional record of 18-0, was challenged to a sparring session by Italian fighter Fabrizio Tanga, who travelled up from London to test himself against the world champion.
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Tanga, unsurprisingly, found things tougher than he expected and was forced to retire from the bout after being hit with several crunching punches.
Edwards didn't need to get out of first gear to demolish his amateur opponent, who had goaded him into a fight with a series of provocative messages on Twitter.
Edwards later praised Tanga for turning up and revealed how the sparring session had come to take place in truly bizarre circumstances.
"One thing I will say is that hundreds if not thousands of people so far in my boxing career have told me that they would do something to me or would come up to the gym and knock me out, spar me, fight me," Edwards told iFL TV.
"Over an eight-year professional career, Fabrizio Tanga, the man in the background, the Italian Stallion, the man with the plan, he had a train ticket to come up.
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"It was crazy though because I invited him up here yesterday, offered to pay for him, accommodation, take him out for food, everything. And he turned it down saying he was ill.
"Then he randomly came up today. I wasn't even meant to be training today – I was at home on the sofa with my kids and I look at my phone and he's in Sheffield outside my gym.
"So I rang the lads, obviously there were a few of us that came because this doesn't happen often and yeah I gave him a couple of rounds. I let him know what I do is no joke but he knew that I wasn't taking the p*** out of him.
"I do give him credit for coming all that way. Four hours... I can't imagine the head space that he was in. Crazy, but he's a good lad."
Boxing fans praised Edwards for taking it relatively easily on Tanga, while others gave credit to the Italian for actually turning up as promised.
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"Respect to the young man. He spoke, He showed, He lived and He learned. Respect to Sunny for teaching him a lesson without teeing off," wrote one fan on YouTube.
Another added: "What a gentleman sunny is and fair play to the troll, he walked his talk unlike the majority of keyboard cowards."
Edwards will face much stiffer opposition in his next professional bout, with a potential unification fight against WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez currently in negotiations.
Topics: Boxing
Rory O'Callaghan