Charlie Edwards vs Thomas Essomba Predictions: Big European night for Charlie

Former world champion Charles Edwards goes in with Thomas Essomba this Friday, September 27. The fight takes place at York Hall in Bethnal Green on the undercard of Reece Mould vs Ryan Walsh. Channel 5 will televise the action live.

Here are my Edwards vs Essomba predictions ahead of this European bantamweight title battle.

Edwards is a former WBC flyweight champion who never lost that title in the ring. His last bout in the division came in a 2019 title defence against Julio Cesar Martinez. The result was initially awarded as a third-round TKO for the challenger, but was changed to a No Contest when it became clear Martinez had hit a grounded Edwards.

The idea was to move up to super flyweight and challenge for the WBC belt in a new division. That did not happen, but the global pandemic did. It would be over a year apiece between Edwards’ next two fights. Then a series of protracted wrangles and fall-outs with trainers kept the Surrey man out of the ring between December 2021 and June 2023. A further lay-off stretched from that win over Darwing Martinez until this April

Edwards is still only 31 and has only lost once in his career, an IBF flyweight title reverse to John Riel Casimero in 2016. Fighting a mere five months after his victory over Georges Ory, the ex-champ seems to have found a rhythm in terms of activity too.

Ory was no mug. The Frenchman was a former European bantamweight champion after all. Now Edwards goes in with the incumbent, as he takes on belt-holder Essomba. Better than his 13-8 record suggests, the Cameroonian finally got his flowers last year when he took the belt from Alessio Lorusso.

A fun throughline to this whole affair actually centres around Charlies’ brother, Sunny Edwards. 

Not only has the younger Edwards sibling fought Essomba before, beating him via decision back in 2020. But Sunny now manages the Olympian and hand-picked this fight with his own brother.

Charlie has been keen to both play-down and ramp-up the sibling rivalry aspect over the course of the build-up. But he has also been keen to emphasise he is not fighting his brother. Essomba is a danger-man despite the eight defeats. You don’t win the European belt by being a poor fighter. Edwards will need to park the Greek family tragedy at the arena door going into this one. 

It would make sense as a fight even without the Sunny element. It represents a chance for Edwards to raise his first title up at bantamweight. It is a chance to get 12 rounds in the bank for the first time in many a year. While Essomba is dangerous, he is not part of the world elite. This is a chance to build back up to world level.

This bout is must-win for Edwards if he has any chance of becoming a two-weight world champion. Fail here and continental level forever becomes his ceiling. But win, and impress while doing so, and there just might be another world title in Charlie’s future.

Charlie Edwards vs Thomas Essomba Fight Odds

Edwards is your favourite at 2/9 while the European champ is priced at 3/1. The draw is available at 16/1.

Charlie Edwards vs Thomas Essomba Full Card

Thomas Essomba vs. Charlie Edwards 

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Jesse Brandon vs. Miguel Angel Nunez 

Joel Bartell vs. Nikolas Dzurnak 

Brandan Olbrechts vs. Brayan Mairena 

Hannah Robinson vs. Laura Reoyo 

Tom Welland vs. Darwing Martinez 

Danny Boardman vs. Yin Caicedo 

Hasnan Ali vs. TBA

Charlie Edwards vs Thomas Essomba Prediction

This will be a tricky night for Edwards I feel. I can see this one being a little tighter than the odds would suggest. 

However, while I think the cards will be fairly close, I do think Edwards will prevail. I’m picking the former world champion to win on points at 1/2.

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