Breaking: Sunny Edwards suffers horror cut after clash of heads during win over Adrian Curiel, before joking: ‘I’ve managed to leave Arizona uglier than I came’

British boxer Sunny Edwards was left with a huge cut above his right eye following a clash of heads during his win over Mexico’s Adrian Curiel in Arizona on Saturday night.

This was Edwards’ first fight since December when he suffered the only defeat of his professional career at the hands of Jesse Rodriguez.

That fight was in Arizona too and it also ended with Edwards sporting a huge facial cut.

But the 28-year-old Londoner – despite looking beaten – was a winner on Saturday, albeit in unconventional circumstances.

He beat Curiel via a unanimous technical decision – with the scorecards showing 90-82, 88-84 and 87-85 – after the referee eventually stopped the fight early due to the cut, which had been the consequence of an accidental clash.

Edwards was booed by the crowd following the win – the 21st victory of his 22-fight pro career.

He later responded: ‘I don’t know if the crowd realise what happened there.

‘The doctor stopped the cut, no decision of mine. I’m more upset than any of the 10,000 fans in here.’

‘I thought I was clear ahead and I thought my opponent was slowing down.

‘I thought I was going to get him out of there or win absolutely conclusively.’

Edwards then joked: ‘I managed to leave Arizona uglier than I came twice in a row, so I want to apologise to the fans who have taken this personally but I had nothing to do with the ref stopping this.

‘Maybe I’ll come back and fight Curiel again, I don’t know what the fans want.’