By Sam Gregory: In the opening bout on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights from El Paso, Texas undefeated Danny Garcia 15-0 with 10 KO’s from Philadelphia fought Ashley Theophane 25-3 with 7 KO’s of London, England in a scheduled ten round bout in the junior welterweight division.

At the opening bell both men came out moving and boxing throughout the first round. Both Garcia and Theophane threw left hooks, Garcia’s landed followed up by landing his jab; Theophane landed a left hook to the body than one to the head. At the end of the first round Compubox numbers showed both men threw an equal amount of punches.

In the second and third rounds Theophane proved to be a very game fighter that challenged Garcia and kept the pressure on. Garcia put combinations together that started with a stiff jab prompting Theophane to tie up several times in the first three rounds.

Theophane kept pushing forward as he seemed to gain confidence in his combination punches. By the fifth round Theophane started getting sloppy as he was pushing forward.

Garcia landed his jab in the sixth round that Theophane tried to counter with combinations; Theophane’s punches were wide, sloppy and landed low. In the sixth round Theophane received his first warning for landing his punches low.

In the seventh round Theophane threw a wide punch that Garcia was successful in countering; Garcia landed a big overhand right that stunned Theophane.

In the eighth round Garcia landed a big left hook trying to bait Theophane into a counter punch but the experienced Theophane didn’t bit; Garcia dropped his left and came close to getting caught

The ninth round was another close round; Theophane had a point deducted for throwing a low blow. Garcia had the better round even though Theophane was busy in the round.

In the tenth and final round both men let their hands go; several punches landed for both men making it another close round.

After 10 rounds the fight went to the judge’s scorecards: 95-94 for Theophane, 95-94 for Garcia and 96-94 for Garcia, the winner by split decision

Danny Garcia improved his undefeated record to 16-0 with 10 KO’s while Ashley Theophane fell to 25-4 with 7 KO’s.