Ricky Burns has a habit of confounding the pundits, your humble writer included. Last year in what was a strong candidate for Fight of the Year he dethroned WBO Super-Featherweight Champion Roman Martinez in Glasgow, Scotland. In that fight he feathered an early storm from the champion to run away from the fight in the later rounds but in his fight at 135Ibs it would be him that made the strong start.
Against the always exciting lightweight Michael Katisdis, Burns effectively neutralized the brawling style of the Australian gladiator for five out of the first six rounds by fighting adroitly behind a tight guard and strong jab. While Katisdis would come back strong and was particularly strong in the tenth and twelfth rounds, where the Australian fighter repeatedly forced Burns to fall back onto the ropes and connected with numerous power punches. Burns showed impressive self-discipline to hold off the challenge even as Katisdis walked through his once effective jab in the second half of the fight. In particular he seized on a slackening in the pace of the fight in the ninth and eleventh fight to secure the points that on most neutral observers scorecards gave him a 115-113 victory. The ringside judges were predictably more generous with scores of 117-112, 117-111, 117-111.
As a result of the victory Burns improves to 33-2 while Katisdis declines to 28-5, having now lost three out of his last four fights. Burns also picked up the ‘prestigious’ WBO interim lightweight title. Hopefully with a new television channel to support his promoter Frank Warren will be able to secure him a better standard of opposition than the substandard challengers that marred his super-featherweight reign both in terms of critical approval and commercial success.
