By Nate Anderson: BBBofC British super flyweight champion Lee Haskins (19-2, 10 KO‘s) was too much for Ross Burkinshaw (6-2-2, 4 KO‘s), stopping him in the 4th round of a scheduled 12-round title bout on Friday night at the Seaburn Centre, in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear.
Haskins, 25, making his first defense of his British title, hurt Burkinshaw, 22, with a series of wide straight-armed hooks in the 4th round and put him down with a big right hand that staggered and then put Burkinshaw down on one knee on the canvas. And although Burkinshaw got to his feet and looked in good enough condition to continue, referee Ian-John-Lewis stepped in and waived off the bout at 1:09 of the 4th round.
The crowd hated the stoppage, booing loudly, thinking that the fight should have been allowed to have continued. I’m usually not one to agree with most referees, but in this case Lewis was right for stopping the bout. Burkinshaw never had a chance from the moment he stepped into the ring and was just taking needless punishment in the fight and serving no other purpose other than to make Haskins look good.
What seems a little strange is why a fighter with a 6-1-2 record was allowed to fight a title holder like Haskins. That seemed a little desperate and wrong for a fighter as green and inexperienced like Burkinshaw to be thrust into the ring against a champion like Haskins. I’m all for letting fighters get a chance at a title, but not when they’ve only had nine fights against marginal competition like Burkinshaw had before the fight.
Indeed, his last opponent, Mike Robinson, who Burkinshaw fought twice in a row, had a record of 4-1. Burkinshaw’s opponent before that was Mike Holloway with a record of 1-2, and before that Abdul Mghrbel, who has a record of 4-13-2.
It seems worth Haskin’s time to fight someone like Burkinshaw nor really fair to the opponents that purchased tickets for the fight. Just looking at the record of Burkinshaw going into the fight, you had a pretty good idea what the outcome would be against Haskins.
Haskins, who has an interest in fighting Don Broadhurst, came out firing away with left hands in his herky-jerky style of fighting in the 1st round. Looking like a poor man’s version of Naseem Hamed, Haskins peppered Burkinshaw with left hands and right hooks to the head. Haskins kept his hands down by his sides for most of the round, leaning forward staring at Burkinshaw and daring him to throw a punch.
Burkinshaw looked frightened and wasn’t about to throw any punches at Haskins during the round. This left Haskins tee off with stiff looking shots where Haskins would keep his arms completely straight while throwing hooks. It was as if Haskins had no flexibility in his body and fought robotically even though he was using a Hamed style imitation.
By keeping his arms straight, it took away a lot of speed from Haskins’ already slow punches. His hand speed is some of the slowest I can recall ever seeing in a super flyweight and I suppose it was a good thing that Haskins was fighting an easy mark like Burkinshaw rather than Broadhurst, because he would likely have had his head torn off by him looking the way he did on Friday night.
In rounds two and three, Haskins fired away with his slow robotic looking punches and getting the better of Burkinshaw, who continued to do nothing offensively. It was all one way traffic and not pretty to watch because of Haskins’ limited boxing skills and his dreadful opponent.
In the 3rd round, Haskins teed off on Burkinshaw with combinations early in the round, hitting him with 10 consecutive punches before Burkinshaw finally threw something back. The fight should have been stopped at this point because it was totally one-sided and not particularly interesting to watch due to the un-competitiveness of the fight.
Early in the 4th round, Haskins, looking frustrated, appeared to intentionally head butt Burkinshaw while in close. It was hard to understand the reasoning behind the move because the fight was entirely one-sided and it wasn’t as if Burkinshaw was hitting him with anything. At this point, Haskins got really sloppy and just started firing off a mess of combinations, hitting Burkinshaw with some big shots but also getting hit with a couple of hard right hands in the process.
Finally, Haskins struck pay dirt when he was able to stagger and then drop Burkinshaw with a left-right combination. Burkinshaw got to his feet immediately, but referee Ian John-Lewis opted to stop the bout anyway at 1:09 of the 4th.
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