Danny Aarons and Danny Simpson won’t have to give up their prized possessions after all.
The main event of Saturday’s Misfits Boxing 17 event at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland, ended in a hotly contested split draw after YouTuber Danny Aarons and retired Premier League standout Danny Simpson battled for four exciting—if less-than-technical—rounds.
While both men are likely disappointed with the result, it does mean that their gutsy pre-fight wager is now of no consequence. Aarons, a popular YouTuber, was to give Simpson his gold play button (a plaque given to content creators who have reached 1,000,000 subscribers) if he lost, while Simpson put an even more prestigious prize on the line: The Premier League medal that he won as a key member of the Leicester City team that miraculously went on a miraculous championship run in 2016.
In what was the first-ever boxing match for Aarons and Simpson, their inexperience showed as they engaged in a sloppy 12-minute brawl. The middle frames saw both men have flashes of effective offense, with the longer Simpson keeping Aarons at bay with punches from range in Round 2, and Aarons getting his combinations going in Round 3. It appeared to be anyone’s fight heading into the fourth and final round.
Neither fighter was able to pull away in Round 4 as all technique went out the window and the action devolved into a sloppy brawl. When the final bell rang, it was unclear who would walk out with the victory and, as it turned out, no one did.
Elsewhere on the card, light heavyweight champion Anthony Taylor handed Gabriel Silva—the son of MMA legend Anderson Silva—a devastating TKO loss, fitness influencer HSTikkyTokky ran through over-matched reality TV star George Fensom, and Deen the Great successfully defended his lightweight title with a third-round TKO of Dave Fogarty.
See Misfits Boxing 17 results below.
Danny Aarons vs. Danny Simpson ends in a split draw (38-38, 39-37, 37-39)
Anthony Taylor def. Gabriel Silva via TKO (R3, 2:54) — light heavyweight title fight
HSTikkyTokky def. George Fensom via TKO (R1, 1:19)
Ben Williams def. Warren Spencer via TKO (R2, 0:45)
Deen the Great def. Dave Fogarty via TKO (R3, 2:57) — lightweight title fight
Sami Hamed def. Jesse Clarke via TKO (corner stoppage) (R2, 2:21)
Mike Edwards def. Jake Cornish via unanimous decision (49-46 x2, 50-47)
Minikon def. DTG via majority decision (48-48, 48-47 x2)
