{"id":465971,"date":"2026-03-09T13:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T13:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465971\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T13:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T13:33:15","slug":"trainer-stephen-edwards-says-yoenli-hernandez-may-be-best-middleweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465971\/","title":{"rendered":"Trainer Stephen Edwards Says Yoenli Hernandez May Be Best Middleweight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770669047_552_google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Hernandez faced Kyrone Davis on May 31, 2025, in Las Vegas, winning a clear unanimous decision while scoring a knockdown. Davis entered the fight trained by Edwards, giving the Philadelphia coach a detailed look at Hernandez\u2019s abilities across ten rounds.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards discussed Yoenli in his <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BreadmanBoxing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">weekly mailbag <\/a>published by BoxingScene, where he offered a strong view of the Cuban middleweight\u2019s standing in the division.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHernandez is super talented. He\u2019s super conditioned. And he\u2019s super strong,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cHe may be the best middleweight in the world right now if I\u2019m being honest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yoenli (9-0, 8 KOs) has quietly built momentum since turning professional after a decorated amateur career. The Cuban southpaw has combined physical strength with consistent conditioning, traits that Edwards said stood out clearly during the fight with Davis.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards explained that the 28-year-old Hernandez\u2019s combination of strength and stamina allowed him to control long stretches of the bout. The trainer said those attributes, combined with Hernandez\u2019s natural talent, place him near the top of the 160-pound division in his view.<\/p>\n<p>The Philadelphia coach also believes Hernandez has the ability to collect multiple belts at middleweight if the right opportunities arrive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think his ceiling is a possible unified champion,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if multi-division titles is his ceiling because the jump from 160 pounds to 168 pounds is the biggest jump in boxing as far as body frame.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hernandez is currently the mandatory challenger for the middleweight title held by Erislandy Lara, which could place him in position for a significant fight in the division.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards also noted that Hernandez left a strong impression from the trainer\u2019s perspective. Based on the opponents he has prepared fighters to face over the years, Edwards ranked Hernandez among the best he has encountered during his time working in championship camps.<\/p>\n<p>For Edwards, the view formed from that ringside experience was simple: Hernandez already belongs among the elite fighters competing at middleweight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hernandez faced Kyrone Davis on May 31, 2025, in Las Vegas, winning a clear unanimous decision while scoring&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-465971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}