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Promoter Eddie Hearn is planning to pursue a flyweight unification clash between world champions Julio Cesar Martinez and Sunny Edwards.
Before that scenario can be explored, both boxers will have to win their upcoming defenses.
Edwards is back on March 19, when he makes a voluntary defense of his IBF title against Muhammad Waseem in Dubai.
And Martinez is slated to make a mandatory defense of his WBC title against McWilliams Arroyo, which is targeted to land on May 7, as part of the supporting undercard to Canelo Alvarez vs. Dimitry Bivol.
Martinez initially fought Arroyo in November 2021, with the encounter ending in a three round no-contest due to a head clash.
Earlier this month, Martinez tasted defeat when he moved up super flyweight and was dominated over twelve rounds by four division champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez.
“One of the conditions of taking that fight [with Gonzalez] was that he has to fight his mandatory [against Arroyo] because of the technical draw, but we’re going to do that real quick. It might even be on the Canelo card. [Martinez will] be back out in May and then we’ll do the [Edwards] fight in the summer,” Hearn said to IFL TV.
“Martinez has to unify otherwise it becomes boring. If [Edwards is] nice, we’ll give him a fight.”
There is already some bad blood and history between Martinez and Edwards.
Back in 2019, Martinez fought Sunny’s older brother, Charlie Edwards, who at the time was the WBC champion at the weight. Martinez would hurt and drop Edwards in the third round, but also hit him to the body while he was still down. The foul would ultimately lead to a Martinez knockout victory being quickly changed to a no-contest.
The older Edwards would later vacate the title and move up in weight, with Martinez capturing the vacant belt with a stoppage of Cristofer Rosales later that year.