By Liam Smith: Coatbridge’s Ricky Burns successfully defended his WBO lightweight belt in fantastic fashion on Saturday night in front a capacity crowd at Glasgow’s SECC arena.

For Dagenham’s Kevin Mitchell the bout represented a shot to redeem himself after a turbulent few years in which his personal problems got the better of him. Mitchell claims that not being able to deal with his family issues while in training was the cause of his third round demolition at the hands of Michael Katsidis in May 2010. He then spent the next six months, and his entire purse from that fight, in his local pub. After conquering his demons and his exhilarating war with John Murray many pundits believed he would take his chance and leave the champions back yard with his title in hand. Most expecting a 12 round war with perhaps a late Mitchell stoppage. That prediction could not have been further from the eventual outcome.

Being in the crowd on Saturday night I can honestly say I have never witnessed such an exciting atmosphere before. With ex two time WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison winning his six rounder, albeit unconvincingly after a first round knock down, the crowd were ready to roar for their local hero Ricky Burns. The first round was closely contested with both fighters looking to land shots early on. With Burns coming out more aggressive than usual in the second round he appeared to be trying to make sure Mitchell felt his new found strength at the weight and keep Mitchell’s confidence to a minimum. Burns looked as though he had been working on throwing the straight right as when Mitchell pulls back from shots instead of slipping them he does not bring his left hand with him leaving an opening for that straight right which landed flush for the first time in the second round. Mitchell came out swinging at the start of the third and in the first ten seconds narrowly escaped a big left hook reply from Burns. A counter that would later spell the beginning of the end for Mitchell. An exchange against the ropes saw Mitchell beat his chest as if to say he could take his opponents shots all night. However that straight right from Burns would see more success in the fourth. In the opening moments of the fourth Burns narrowly missed that swinging left hook again but that would be the last time it would fail to land. With just under a minute left in the round a combination from Burns ended with that big left hook this time with pin point accuracy straight to the chin dropping Mitchell. After taking an eight count he never really looked stable and was dropped again in a matter of seconds after two right hands. Again Mitchell found his way to his feet but with under ten seconds left in the round a combination put Mitchell against the ropes and when referee Terry O’conner saw nothing coming back from Mitchell he correctly called a halt to the fight. Que the uproar from the Glasgow crowd.

The way in which both men conducted themselves before, during, and after the fight is a credit to the sport and they should be acknowledged for such behaviour. In putting a long term friendship aside before stepping between the ropes to picking it straight back up as soon as they left the ring they showed that the sport does not need the aggressive insults and flaring tempers before hand to make a fight successful. The ringside interview afterwards showed fighters arm in arm giving nothing but credit to each other. With Ricky Burns openly stating he wants to fight for the Ring Magazine title there is sure to be a trip to Vegas on the cards for the twenty nine year old lightweight. Being the genuine nice guy of the sport Ricky finished the interview with a sincere thank you to his loyal fans who packed into the SECC on Saturday night and hoped he had made everyone proud. There is no doubt about it. The entire country is incredibly proud and I personally would like to thank Ricky for allowing us the chance to be.