By Sean McDaniel: Super featherweight Ricky Burns (24-2, 5 KOs) won an impressive 12-round unanimous decision over Osumanu Akaba (11-5, 8 KOs) on Friday night to win the vacant Commonwealth (British Empire) super featherweight title at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, in London. The final judges’ scores were 116-113, 117-112 and 116-112. With WBO super featherweight champion Nicky Coo watching the fight at ringside, Burns, 25, pounded out a tough decision over Akaba, 31, from Ghana. Using a three inch height and reach advantage, Burns jabbed the shorter Akaba from the outside and tagged him with precise combinations. Akaba fought wildly much of the time, rushing forward and throwing big haymakers and missing often.
Although Akaba kept the fight close with his aggressive attacks, he appeared to lose every round except for the second, fourth and sixth. Burns, who twice previously had been defeated (once by Carl Johannseson and another time by Alex Arthur) when challenging for a title, finally got the title he was looking for against Akaba.
Burns stood standing ramrod straight up as he boxed, jabbing an backing away as Akba would come lunging forward to try and land his shorter punches. It seemed as if Akaba had no choice other than to attack in a wild manner, for when he would come in slower using just his jab, Burns would pick him off with combinations to the head as he was coming in range.
Burns came out of the blocks fast in round two, throwing big winging punches, missing most but still landing enough to win the round. Burns back-pedaled constantly, trying to keep out of range of Akaba’s big shots, but there were so many coming at him that he couldn’t avoid all of them. In the last minute of the round, Burns rallied, hitting Akaba with left hooks and right hands, taking advantage of Akaba’s aggressive attacks by hitting him on the way in.
Both fighters stood toe to toe in the 3rd round, flailing away at each other. Even then, however, Burns was much more accurate with his shots, and getting the far better of the action. As if to try and even the score, Akaba began to rush forward even more aggressively, throwing punches as he rushed forward and looking more than a little amateurish in doing so.
Akaba fought well in the fourth, starting the round well landing some big shots to the head. Burns came on in the middle of the round, and appeared on his way to snatching it, but Akaba came on in the final thirty seconds to cement the round by landing some big left hand shots.
Burns used his superior boxing skills to win the 5th round, fighting smart from the outside and picking Akaba off with pinpoint shots to the head. Near the end of the round, Burns unleashed a flurry of power shots to the head of Akaba, catching him cleanly over and over.
Akaba came out bouncing on his toes in the 6th round, looking and fighting with a great deal of confidence as he tagged Burns repeatedly with good right hands. After getting hit quite a few times in the first two minutes, Burns chose to move for the remainder of the round to avoid getting hit. In the 7th round, Akaba once again started well, landing some powerhouse hooks to the head of Burns. However, after Akaba stopped punching, Burns came on and dominated the remainder of the round with combinations.
In rounds eight through twelve, Burns continued controlling the fight with combination punching and movement. Akaba began to look ever the more desperate by the 10th, and rushed forward often throwing wild shots as he went. Most of the time, he would come up short on his punches or have them blocked on the gloves by Burns. Refusing to let up on his own shots, Burns fought hard in the final two rounds, taking the fight to Akaba and incredibly outworking him in the process.