By Gari Jones: After a hard fought fight both men had nothing to be ashamed of in what was a truly gritty fight from start to finish. In a fight many pundits expected Michael Katsidis (W28, L5, D0, KO23) to win, it was Ricky Burns (W33, L2, D0, KO9) who beat the odds to take the Interim World Boxing Organization (WBO) lightweight title on a Unanimous Decision.

Whilst the outcome was the right one, the way in which the judge’s scored the fight leaves me scratching my head, with one of the judges scoring the bout 117-112 and two scoring it 117-111, I asked myself what fight were the judges watching. I had the bout scored 6-5 to Burns going into the 12th and only because Burns landed the better punches in the 12th did I gave the fight to Burns 115-113.

Now Katsidis did push the last round looking to unload with everything he got, but because of the repeated punches to the back of the head (in which the ref did warn him about) I gave the last round to Ricky instead of Michael, otherwise I’d consider the fight a draw.

It wasn’t the only criticism I had on fight night, the commentators where also annoying at times. Enzo Maccrinelli had Burns winning the first four or five rounds, not to mention he wouldn’t shut up about Burns and his impressive Jab (which it was by the way) but totally overlooking the fact that Katsidis was also trading blows with the Scotsman.

I also have to question BOXNATION on their hiring of pundit Steve Bunce who despite being likeable and knowledgeable on the sport, just doesn’t seem to know when to just SHUT THE HELL UP (on and on and on and on he goes) GRRR it irritates me at times.

As for the overall fight I was really impressed by Burns, Katisidis did what he always does and that was to come forward and try to stay inside the fighters range. Burns and his corner were obviously aware of this and came up with the right game plan to counter it. Ricky chose a defensive counter style, looking to hit Katsidis whenever he committed himself in an attack. For the first three (3) rounds Burns was coping well with the barrage of punches Michael was throwing, but despite his best efforts none were getting through. It reminded me of the fight between Michael Watson and Nigel Benn. Benn known for his hard hitting style was allowed to punch repeatedly while Watson intelligently covered up and looked to counter in the exchange (Benn lost that fight in round 6 of May 1989). This was what Burns was doing for the first half of the fight, but wherever Katsidis is involved tactics like that come with a risk.

Rounds 1, 2 and 3 I gave to Burns due to the better landed punches and defensive work that meant Michael didn’t land anything meaningful. Katsidis took rounds 4 and 5 in my opinion, although Ricky was using the defensive tactic to good use Michael upped his work rate and some meaningful punches got through (which is what I think the judges scoring the fight seemed to have missed). I don’t know how other people scored the fight but from here I SCORED IT 6, 9, 11 and 12 to Burns and 7, 8 and 10 to Katsidis.

Katsidis has nothing to be ashamed of he tried everything he could to get to Burns but this was not to be his night, he can still come back from this and be a success at lightweight. Burns however must be looking forward to the possibility of an all British fight between either Kevin Mitchell or a unification bout with John Murray should he be successful against Brandon Rios in December. Whatever they do I think BOXNATION put on a superb fight card and I hope there is more to come.