A little over a year ago super featherweight sensation Edner Cherry (31-6-2, 17 KOs) knocked out Vicente Escobedo in the sixth round at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City and since then his fans have been anxiously awaiting his return to the ring; Friday night at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia that wait will finally be over when he takes on Rober Osiobe (14-8-4, 6 KOs).
Despite being only 31, Cherry, a native of Nassau, Bahamas now of Wauchula, FL, has 40 career professional fights. The majority of Cherry’s fights have been in his home state of Florida but he is excited to make his Philadelphia debut. He said, “I am looking forward to fighting in Philly. It has a great boxing history. I am just glad that it wasn’t a few months ago because being from Miami I couldn’t have handled being here with all that snow!”
Cherry has not lost since, Sep. 13, 2008 when he lost in 12 rounds to Timothy Bradley in Biloxi, MS. Edner is also currently on a three fight win streak. He and Eric Aiken had a no contest on Sep. 23, 2011 in Hollywood, FL. Since then, in addition to his knockout of Escobedo, we defeated Juan Carlos Martinez via majority decision in ten rounds on Apr. 14, 2014 in Cicero, IL and he defeated Guillermo Sanchez via unanimous decision in eight rounds on Feb. 24, 2012 in Chicago, IL.
Edner said he used this year off wisely by constantly working out. He said, “After the fight with Escobedo I took only one week off. After that I have been in the gym constantly since then. I never missed a full week. I was always at the gym for the whole year working Dan Birmingham in St. Petersburg, FL. I am ready to get back to it.”
His opponent, Robert Osiobe, 36 of Ughelli, Nigeria is trying to prove he still has what it takes to compete at this level after suffering three straight losses (an eight round split decision on Dec. 6, 2013 to Ashley Theopane, an eight round unanimous decision on Aug. 16, 2013 to Jamal James and an eight round unanimous decision to Mark Davis on Jul. 5, 2013).
Cherry said, “I want to thank Russell Peltz for bringing me on board and putting his trust in me. I want to thank my fans for supporting me. I am sorry for being off for a year but I am back. I am ready to fight.”
J Russell Peltz, Cherry’s Promoter, said, “Cherry has been off for one year but that is no reason for fans to forget about him. He could be the future of the junior lightweight division.”
About April 4th:
