By Nate Anderson: Making his first defense of his Commonwealth (British Empire) super featherweight title, champion Ricky Burns (25-2, 6 KOs) took out challenger Yakubu Amidu (16-2-1, 16 KOs) in the 7th round of a scheduled 12-round bout on Friday night at the Kelvin Hall, in Glasgow, Scotland.
Burns, 25, hurt Amidu with a chopping right hand in the 7th, staggering him slightly and causing him to back up several steps on rubbery legs. Burns then landed a huge right uppercut followed by a hard left hand that caused Amidu to stumble backwards a couple of feet. At this point, referee Ian John-Lewis stepped in and stopped the fight at 2:57 of the round.
Amidu may have still been able to fight, but due to the condition of his legs, which had gone rubbery twice after getting hit by Burns, the referee perhaps thought it was best to stop the fight rather than let it continue to the conclusion of the round. Burns looked impressive, throwing fast shots and hard combinations in the bout and looking much better than he did in his last fight against Osumanu Akaba in September.
In the first round, Burns chose to brawl with Amidu, slugging it out with him at close range and taking some big hits. Burns decision to go toe-to-toe with Amidu would later backfire somewhat, as Burns was cut over the right eye after clashing heads with Amidu during the round.
However, the cut didn’t worsen and was never really much of a factor in the fight. Rounds two through four were very close, with Amidu constantly stalking Burns, looking to land big shots. However, Burns moved constantly and would stop and throw fast combinations and then start moving again.
In the 5th round, Amidu started coming on, landing hard single shots in the second half of the round and outworking Burns by a narrow margin. However, Amidu was landing the much harder shots during this time, which seemed to cause Burns to look slightly worried.
In the 6th round, Amidu would continue to pressure Burns with heavy shots, walking him down and tagging him hard combinations to the head. Burns tried circling the ring in a failed attempt at keeping Amidu off of him, but it didn’t work as Amidu cut off the ring expertly and continued to hit him at will.
In the 7th round, Burns came out fast, landing hard combinations and upsetting the momentum that Amidu had built up in the two previous rounds. Late in the round, after getting backed to the ropes, Burns fired off a chopping right hand that landed perfectly to the head of Amidu, hurting him badly and causing both of his legs to go rubbery.
Burns then quickly went after him, blasting him with a good right uppercut and then finally a left hand that caused Amidu to stumble backwards towards the ropes. Referee Ian John-Lewis then stopped the fight at 2:57 of the round, preventing Burns from finishing him off with one final shot.