Ryōta Murata vs. Steven Butler & Kenshiro Teraji vs. Randy Formentera Petalcorin RBR

259 day layoff for Yaegashi...

 

Round 1

Yaegashi circles left and right, popping jabs. Mthalane shells up and takes several jabs on the forearms, but Yaegashi is also squatting in and sprinkling in jabs on the belt line before dashing out at diagonals. Nice in and out movement by Yaegashi, never backing straight up, throwing a lot of jabs at different levels. Mthalane having difficult cutting the ring off as Yaegashi constantly springs up somewhere new from moment to moment. Hooks off the jab by Mthalene reaching in, falling short. Yaegashi circling wide, then inching close and dropping a right hand on the brow. Mthalane chases him away with a hook.

10-9 Yaegashi

 

Round 2

Yaegashi has a nice rhythm going, carried over from the first, letting a constant trickle of jabs flow into Mthalane's face. The champion is now stepping in and jabbing with Yaegashi more, rather than just absorbing the challenger's jabs on his forearms while frozen in place. Mthalane looks to create some openings for himself, but Yaegashi able to counter with combinations up top while gliding quickly around. Yaegashi's legs look like those of a man half his age; curious to see how long he can keep this up. Yaegashi artfully stands in front of Mthalane and lands a pull-counter jab. Mthalane moves in with a three-punch combo, gunning hard to body and head. Yaegashi lands a hard left dig on the body himself.

10-9 Yaegashi

20-18 Yaegashi

 

Tim Bradley thinks Yaegashi won the first two but claims he isn't committing to a scorecard on this one. Sure, fine, Tim, not like you're being paid to be a TV analyst right now or anything. You just do you, whatever mood strikes you.