Josh Thomson is taking a look at the UFC 283 bout between Jessica Andrade and Lauren Murphy.
UFC 283 was a hugely successful event held in Rio de Janerio this past weekend. It was the first time the UFC has visited Brazil since before the pandemic and many Brazilan stars were on display. One fighter who was looking to perform in front of her home crowd was Jessica Andrade. Andrade took a fight for this card out of her usual fight class against the number four flyweight Lauren Murphy. The gamble to move up to 125 pounds for this matchup worked out well for Andrade as she dominated Murphy through three rounds and walked away with the unanimous decision.
Andrade put the work in on Murphy for the fifteen minutes inside the cage, so much so that some fans on social media were calling for the bout to be stopped. Now in hindsight, former fighter Josh Thomson is discussing the missed opportunity for Murphy’s corner to throw in the towel.
Put on a show for the fans at home!
🇧🇷@JessicaMMAPro takes the unanimous decision at #UFC283 pic.twitter.com/HPjl3kEicr
— UFC (@ufc) January 22, 2023
Josh Thomson thinks Lauren Murphy’s corner should have called the fight at UFC 283
During and following the fight between Andrade and Murphy fans on Twitter were calling for the bout to be stopped. Because of the nature of the one-sided striking of Andrade, many thought that Murphy’s corner, which included her husband, should have put an early end to the fight. Thomson is now among them as he took to his podcast the next day to explain how he feels Murphy and her corner should have handled the situation during the fight.
“Laura Murphy you need to, not evaluated your career, you need to reevaluate your corners. Your corners need to have a conversation and you need to have a sit down with them and say look, one of them is her husband,” he said. “I’m all for giving fighters every chance but in that third, between that second and third round her corners and her husband should have said ‘hey, I’m gonna give you one minute or one minute-thirty, whatever, show me you can change this fight and if you can’t, right now your target practice.”
Murphy took to Instagram the next day to explain her side of the story. She explained that she was glad her corner did not stop the bout and that she is taking it as a learning experience.
“The fight was a beat down but not the way I imagined it. Sometimes shit goes down and you just gotta learn from it and get better. Jessica is an insanely tough opponent and I will learn a lot from her. All these experiences -the good ones and bad ones -make me a better athlete and human,” she wrote. “I’m glad my corner didn’t stop the fight. Tbh I thought the ref was going to stop it in the second round but the bell rang before he decided to. Either way, I was grateful for the chance to keep fighting. My head and nose will heal with rest, and my heart will heal with time.
Thomson went on to explain that the corner’s job is to protect the fighter from brain damage and other injuries when they cannot do that themselves. He said that he felt there was no way that Murphy was going to win that fight after it had gotten to the third round and that her corner needed to step in to make sure that she can continue her career and fight another day.
