By Gary Brownlie: On Saturday night a man from Coatbridge Ricky Burns (29-2, 7 KO’s) turned in the performance of a lifetime, defeated an undefeated world champion and claimed the WBO Super-featherweight world title. To say the least, his performance showed heart, determination and talent. Here was a man, written off by the pundits and experts but still confident and willing to go into the ring against the undefeated Puerto Rican, Roman “Rocky” Martinez (24-1-1, 15 KO’s). The first round belonged to the champion, with a flash knock down. The disappointment was written all over Ricky’s face as he fell back against the ropes, caught flat footed with a straight right. It was a lesson learned for the man from Coatbridge.
This was the turning point in the fight, after which Martinez began looking for the one-punch spectacular finish he thought would silence the ruckus Glasgow crowd. His tactics played into the challengers hands, with Martinez becoming target practice for Ricky as he picked the Puerto Rican off with jabs and upper cuts while the champion was lunging wildly with left and rights. Although Ricky did have to absorb a few of these shots, one or two of which wobbled him, it has to be said that to take a title away from an undefeated champion you have to take risks. Risks he took, often to the annoyance of his corner team, especially in the later rounds where the Scottish challenger was cruising towards being a World Champion. At the end of the fight Martinez knew he had been beaten by the better man on the night, which was something he or many of the pundits had expected. Before the fight he had spoken of the fear in the eyes of the challenger, however the fear was now in the champions eyes as he knew his belt was staying in Glasgow.
There have been a few negative articles written about this fight, as though Ricky doesn’t deserve his title of being World Champion but doesn’t this fight represent everything we love about boxing? A man from relative obscurity rising up to beat the odds and defeat the undefeated world champion. Its a Hollywood script played out in real life before our eyes. Debating whether or not Ricky Burns is going to be a great champion of the Super-Feather Weight division is pointless, what is important is that on Saturday 4th of September 2010 Ricky Burns became the WBO super featherweight world champion. Only praise should be given to both fighters for the way they fought, putting it all on the line for the world title.
Other fighters should take note of how both conducted themselves, the champion who was willing to travel far from home to defend his title and the challenger who was unwilling to give up on his dream. If only the likes of Floyd Mayweather, David Haye, Vitali/Wladimir Klitschko, Andre Dirrell & Andre Ward had half the heart of either of these two fighters then boxing would be in a much better state than what it is in. I understand that boxing is a balance between business and entertainment but at some point the fighters have to understand that it is not just a business.
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