With only five months of training and barely 16 years old, Edison fought his first amateur boxing match on April 17, 1997. 

The strength and passion that had seen him through the past 15 years became his greatest weapons in the ring - helping him to a first-round knockout against his first-ever opponent. After only four more amateur fights, Edison found himself in the ring with the best fighters in the country, only to succeed with first-round knockouts again and again. He quickly rose to be the National Champion from 1998 to 1999 and was the Champion of the National Games in 2000.Edison became a professional boxer, but his journey was only halfway over. March, 2002, saw the promising young boxer's arrival in the Dominican Republic. Having been promised a shot at going to the United States to fight the top middleweight fighters in the world, Edison continued with what he's best at - fighting - both in and out of the ring. 

Struggling to make ends meet, left homeless and hungry by an unfair contract, Edison left the Dominican Republic and returned to Barranquilla, Colombia, on December 24, 2004. With the support of friends, he fulfilled his dream of making it as a boxer in the United States when he signed with Warriors and then had his first American fight in Hollywood, Florida, on May 20, 2005."I am God's warrior," Edison says. "I've always put my trust in Him, and He's always protected me. God is the reason I'm here today, and He's the reason I fight. Because I know it's His plan that I be a champion."...Co-manager Steve Benbasat said, "Edison's mother was 14 years old when she had him. At birth, basically, she gave Edison to a friend or relative and he went from one person to another for the first few months of his life. 

I guess he fell in with a distant relative for the first nine years of his life, his mother had run off. At nine years old, he was being mistreated so he took it upon himself to walk out the door, by himself, without any family. "He basically survived from the age of nine all the way through 15, 16, when he started fighting. At nine, he was living in the street. His first motive was to go find his mother, that maybe he could reconnect with her. He travelled through Colombia, what would be the equivalent of the distance, say, from south Florida to North Carolina, a huge distance. "He travelled thousands of miles by foot, hopping in the back of trucks, the drivers didn't even know he was in there. He was sleeping under trees, finding road kill to eat, eating lizards, anything he could put in his mouth. He had rocks thrown at him, he was shot at, he said he thought he was going to die." He made it there by himself at the age of nine, and somehow, through word of mouth, got in touch with his mother and made it to her house.

"She had remarried, and the gentleman she married was like, a councilman or the mayor of the town, something like that. When Edison walked into the house, the gentleman that she had married said, 'Make a choice. It's either me or your son.' She chose to keep her lifestyle with him. Edison overheard this discussion between his mother and her husband and he felt unwanted, so he just left again. So basically, he was abandoned not once, but twice by his mother. Once at birth, and again after nine years of living hell. From nine through 15 he was literally on the streets, doing random construction jobs, digging, whatever it took.

He was sleeping under trees, or he would cover himself up in a construction site with a tarp. He would eat whatever he could find on the side of the streets or out of garbage cans. It's pretty mindboggling. But he was driven, he was making money."He was with corrupt managers-slash-promoters when he turned pro. Apparently he didn't make a penny for his first 19, 20 fights. They took all the money. They would put him in a hotel and everyone would leave, and he would be stuck without means to pay for the hotel. 

It was a very turbulent life." Puerto Rico has changed his life in a major way. Everything from the people there that have treated him very well and taken care of him. Trainer Jose Bonilla has become a father figure to him, and Edison lives with him six days a week when he's training for a fight. Edison is very thankful for Puerto Rico, and now wears a Puerto Rican flag on his trunks."...Regarding his mother, Edison said, "Recently, we have become closer, but it's not because she looks for me. I look for her. I speak with her every once in a while. Regardless of what went on, she is still my mother and I need to be there for her. She's the one that gave birth to me.