IT was what he called a "lazy mistake", but Queanbeyan international kickboxing heavyweight Ben Edwards is still confident looking ahead to at least two more international events after a round one loss at the Glory 16.
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He went down to Curacaoan veteran Errol Zimmerman in the first round of their encounter at the event in Denver, USA after being taken to the floor twice, affecting a technical knock-out after two minutes and fifty seconds.
Edwards was extremely disappointed in the end result, after having Zimmerman right on the ropes and under threat with a series of devastating straight punches and kicking techniques.
But Edwards said his big mistake was "jumping on him" in going for the knock-out too early.
"In doing so I left myself open a little bit and he hit me three times on the chin," said Edwards.
"He's that quick and that good. I got up and went back to what was working for me, but he caught me on the jaw and got me down again."
"There's no excuses for me. He's just too good and too fast and too experienced, but I learnt a lot from it, and I'll come back."
Unlike most fighting matches, in Glory World Series tournaments, if a fighter is knocked off their feet twice in one round, their opponent is automatically declared the winner on a technical knock-out basis.
Otherwise this would take three such occurences in a single round, or four across an entire match.
Edwards was ranked two places higher than Zimmerman heading into the clash on recent form in sixth, after taking out former world number two Jamal Ben Saddik in his Glory debut at the Glory 12 event in New York last year.
Zimmerman went on to win the Glory 16 and has risen three spots to world number five, while Edwards is now ranked eighth.
"I deviated from my own game plan, and I won't be doing that again...Zimmerman waited for the right opportunity, and that's a sign of experience," said Edwards.
"But Glory said they'll give me two more fights before the end of the year. They were happy with me even though I didn't get the win."
Edwards' next fight will be in Canberra at the Capital Punishment event on June 11.