Chris 'Bad News' Baya came into this fight with Josh Jauncey on a week's notice, the third change of opponent that Jauncey had since being put on the GLORY 35 card. Initially he was set to face France's Dylan Salvador, then Salvador's replacement Serhiy Adamchuk, the latter pulling out when his brother was tragically killed back home in Ukraine.
Advantage therefore lay with Jauncey, who at least had the benefit of a full training camp, evne thogh it had largely been devoted to facing a southpaw. Baya, who fights orthodox, meant that a lot of the practised gameplan had to be thrown out of the window. As it turned out, Baya also didn't get the memo about the short-notice fighter being the one with the disadvantage.
With a full training camp behind him, Jauncey was expected to push the pace and attack Baya in the gas tank as much as anywhere else. But the first round saw rather sparing effort from him, working single shots and placement while Baya pressed forwards hitting classic Dutch-style hand and kick combinations.
Jauncey clicked up a gear at the start of the second round, starting to put power into his shots and putting the pressure on Baya. Fire was met with fire though as Baya, fighting out of the infamously hard-sparring Mike's Gym in the Netherlands, relishes a firefight. He gave as good as he got and the result was both fighters biting down on their mouthguards and getting into heavy exchanges.
Jauncey's best work is done when he makes opponents miss and makes them pay, but he also has a tendency to see red when he gets hit hard. That led to him going toe-to-toe with Baya and ultimately paying the price - Baya was able to land several hard counter-punches during one punching exchange and the last one knocked Jauncey down. That made the round an automatic 10-8 loss for Jauncey and made the remainder a desperate rearguard battle for him as he sought to fend off a predatory Baya.
Jauncey made it to the end of the second round and cleared his head in the interval. His cornerman and father Vince Jauncey told him that he needed to push the pace in the final round, apparently seeing signs of Baya tiring. Jauncey went after him but if Baya was tired it wasn't showing – the round was more successful for Jauncey than the second was, but Baya more than held his own.
A knockdown never looked especially close for Jauncey, but did he do enough to win the round? The scores returned at the end of the fight indicating that some of the judges felt he had. Of the five judges ringside, three had it for Baya (29-27, 29-27 and 30-27) and two had it a draw at 28-28, resulting in a Majority Decision win for Baya.
“First of all, condolences to my teammate Serhiy and also my coach Walter is in the hospital with a stomach infection, so get well soon,” were the first words of Baya's post-fight speech, earning applause from the crowd.
“The judges gave the fight to me because of the knockdown I gave him [in round two]...I have seen Jauncey fight before so I know how he fights. The gameplan was to lock him and throw bombs and that's what we did. I caught him with a few good punches and he wobbled, and that was it.”
Chris Baya (57-5-1) def. Josh Jauncey (25-8-0), Majority Decision, R3 (30-27, 29-29, 29-27, 28-28, 28-28)
