Ashley Theophane vs. Ben Murphy & Shinny Bayaar vs. Chris Edwards II RBR

Ashley claims he knew he lost the first 4-5 rounds and is trying to play it off like it all went to plan.

You lost more than 4-5 rounds, dude. :yep

 

Theophane says he was surprised that such a relative novice was able to keep him bottled up and take him off his game even to the degree that he's willing to admit Murphy was able. Calls him a tough kid. He says he underestimated him. He's ready to move on, back to a higher level.

 

It is still all conjectural. We can sit here and ponder what might have happened had Murphy kept his hands down and Theophane gotten bolder in the rest of the 11th and maybe into the 12th...and yeah, it may have gotten to the point where Murphy was in danger...but in reality Theophane never did land anything really big. He arguably doesn't have the power to do so even if he tried (despite the size advantage). I don't think Murphy was playing possum - he was legitimately tired. Still, he could have come out fresh off his stool in the 12th after clearly losing the 11th and landed something big on Theophane who could have also been tired from all those slap combos that wound up forcing the stoppage.

If you look at what actually landed prior to Foster stepping in, it wasn't much more than what Calzaghe was doing to Manfredo.

 

Shinny Bayaar vs. Chris Edwards, rematch for the British flyweight title.

 

Round 1

Immediate head clash. Shinny is cut. Damn it. This is a theme with Bayaar (not intentional, just sort of something that happens...) Edwards is pawing with left hooks. Bayaar pops the right jab and comes through with a left uppercut, always while circling quickly and close. Everything behind the right jab for Bayaar while circling in either direction with frequent changes, while Edwards just keeping hooking away while bouncing forward. Edwards walks into a flush right jab. Clapping shots to the ears by Edwards, with Bayaar putting his guard up mostly on the front of his face to protect that nasty gash atop the bridge of his nose.

10-9 Bayaar

 

Eh...

His hands came down, he took backward steps, and he got slapped at.

I'm still not convinced he was in any peril.

 

Round 2

Right hand lead by Edwards. Another. Right hook by Bayaar. Circling and ducking by Bayaar, forward hops and straight punches by Edwards. High slapping right hook by Bayaar, caught on the side of the neck where it gets pinned as Edwards comes forward and claps away at Bayaar's face. Right hook by Bayaar; Edwards misses a right hand lead. Bayaar moves outside, leaning far over to his right and nearly to the waist to make Edwards lunge. A right hand lead pops Bayaar in the face as he straightens up. Body shots by Edwards. Clapping hook up top by Edwards as Bayaar tries to clinch him from the back of the head. Slapping hooks from Edwards to the rat-tailed mullet of Bayaar. Left to the body by Bayaar as Edwards is head hunting. Right hand lead jumping in by Edwards. Slapping right hooks by Bayaar, then ducking down low as Edwards comes forward with his stabbing attacks. A few good short hooking lefts by Edwards, just tickling Bayaar and looking to set up a right hand.

19-19