Edwards: J-Rock must rematch and stop Rosario
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The trainer reacts to his fighter’s disappointing title loss.
Now with a little time to reflect on what happened a couple weeks ago when Julian Williams was stunned by challenger Jeison Rosario to lose his unified junior middleweight titles, his trainer Stephen Edwards takes some time to talk to Michael Woods about what happened that night and where they go from here.
Edwards begins by expressing his obvious disappointment in Williams getting knocked out that night, but says that there’s a difference in having the hunger to win world title versus having the hunger to defend it against determined challengers, something he’s not sure Williams fully grasped.
The trainer would continue to allude to the fact that Williams wasn’t physically at his best for this fight, but didn’t want to make any excuses as he says that champions must be able to come through in these kind of conditions. So when asked about what he thinks Williams should do next, Edwards says he needs to see Williams beats Rosario for peace of mind.
“I may get overruled on this, I don’t know. But for me, being able to go to sleep at night, and for what I believe Julian is that he got to get that loss the fuck back, Mike. And I don’t care who don’t like this. He got to fight that kid again, he got to knock that kid out. And if he don’t, I’m going to be disappointed in him.
“And I’ve made it as clear as I can, and I don’t know if it’s going to be next or whatever. He got to get that kid back. He cannot go out in his career end losing to that kid. I’m just sorry. You know Jermall Charlo I can accept that a little bit. That guy might go to the hall of fame. We could say we was a little young at the time, he caught Julian with a great shot (in round 5 of their December 2016 scrap). This fight, I can’t stomach that. I’m serious, I just can’t.”
Williams, of course, has already once bounced back from a devastating knockout to win a couple of major world titles, but there are questions about whether or not he can do it again. His trainer believes he certainly can do it, but acknowledges that there’s a difference in being able to do something and actually going out and doing it.
So for now Edwards expects to evaluate Williams inside of the gym to see how he reacts, still firmly believing that the Rosario fight was an ‘unnecessary loss.’