Brave hearted Burns triumphs over Martinez to take title

On a charged up night in Glasgow, Scotland’s Ricky Burns got off the campus to triumph over Roman Martinez to take the WBO super featherweight title.

Martinez, who won the title last year in Britain by stopping Nicky Cook in 4 rounds, got off to a good start dropping Burns with a right hand in the first round but Burns was spurred on by his home crowd and came back stronger, staggering and hurting Martinez especially in the third with some solid right hands.

Martinez appeared to be looking for a single big punch to end proceedings before it went to the cards and although he did catch Burns occasionally Burns wasn’t to be thwarted and hurt Martinez equally especially with the uppercut. Burns appeared to be edging ahead and coming into the final round he stamped his authority on the fight staggering Martinez and almost dropping the Puerto Rican.

Come the final bell Burns and the crowd seemed to know that the he had done enough and all that was left was the formalities of the judges scorecards and when the scores of 115-112 (twice) and 115-113 were read in his favour the party really got under way.

The gripping encounter is already being mentioned as a contender for fight of the year and sees Burns join Khan and Haye in the elite group of British world champions.

On the under card Stephen Smith, brother of British Super middleweight champion Paul, won a narrow points decision over home fighter John Simpson to pick up the Commonwealth featherweight title. In what was initially a close fight I felt Simpson ended stronger to retain his title but Smith, who was cut in the 3rd by a clash of heads, picked up a majority decision by scores of 116-112, 116-114 and 114-116. Interestingly a Scottish judge favoured Simpson whilst the two English judges favoured Smith.

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