by Dennis McCarthy: Last night we saw the defining moment of the career of Ricky Burns. The question ‘could Burns mix it with the big guns’ was finally answered. Yes he can.

Michael Katsidis is a fighter who I’ve always loved to watch, and had the pleasure of watching at Upton Park a couple of years back when he brutally destroyed local lad Kevin Mitchell in 3 rounds.

I can’t actually imagine anybody saying they don’t enjoy Katsidis’s fighting style. Throwing punch after punch, literally like he is fighting for his life. A proper street fighter. A bit like Choi Tseveenpurev in the recent Prizaefighter, who punched his way to success then complained about other fighters constantly trying to hold him.

The trouble with Katsidis last night though, was that his punching had very little effect on the ‘up in weight’ Burns. Out of the constant 20 punch combinations, most never got past the gloves of the Scot, and the couple that did had absolute no effect whatsoever. Burns, fighting a completely different game to Katsidis, was happy to sit back and pick his moments, and when he did he landed where he wanted to. Taking rounds not through workrate, but through effectiveness. For example, If Arsenal have 40 shots on goal and miss the target every time, and Chelsea have 6 shots and score 5 goals, do Arsenal deserve to win the match? Nope.

In terms of a hometown decision, as our friend Scotty ‘too hotty‘ Gilfoid says, I agree that there have been a couple of raised eyebrow moments in the past year that have baffled me when a judges scorecard comes up, most notably the Cox/ Sai fight recently. But this fight was as clear cut as they come. Burns out-boxed Katsidis, outclassed him and the acknowledgement from Katsidis at the end, with the clapping hands while head bowed, said it all.

Good luck to Burns in his next fight, and a very well done to Groves who put Smith away a lot earlier than anyone anticipated.