Burns’ victory over Gonzalez was a hollow one

By Boxing News - 05/11/2013 - Comments

burns433By Scott Gilfoid: If there was ever win that was a tainted one it was WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’ win tonight over Jose Gonzalez (22-1, 17 KO’s) in Glasgow, Scotland. I mean, I’ve never seen Burns schooled like that before.

I shudder at the thought of what would have happened had Gonzalez not stopped fighting when he did. Burns looked totally out of his depth in the fight, and you could see it on his face. The man was desperate.

I like Burns as a fighter, but to see him win like that was sad because he really struggled against Gonzalez and couldn’t handle his jab, speed, power and movement.

Burns looked totally one dimensional out there fumbling around and looking like a contender instead of a champion. Heck, Gonzalez was the one that looked like the champion out there before the injury messed him up.

However, Puerto Rican talent Gonzalez is probably feeling pretty bad right now after opting to quit on his stool. I wish the fight hadn’t ended like that because it robbed Gonzalez of his glory. Gonzalez injured his left wrist and didn’t want to continue fighting after the 9th had ended.

The sad thing is had Gonzalez continued to fight he would have earned at least a draw even if he had lost all three of the remaining rounds [rounds 10 through 12].

That’s disappointing to think about because a draw would have likely led to Burns wanting to fight Gonzalez again. I’m not sure that Burns’ promoter Eddie Hearn would say yes to him tangling with the dangerous Gonzalez again, but at least there would have been a slight chance that Gonzalez could have gotten another fight with him had he chosen to jab for the final three rounds.

Gonzalez had a real chance to make for himself in this because he really impressed in a huge way before he injured his wrist. He won at least one fan tonight and that’s me.

I really liked what I saw of Gonzalez before the injury occurred and I think the man has a lot to be proud of for having stepped up for the first time in his career. Gonzalez was taking a huge step up in class, and he was making Burns looks terrible for most of the fight.

Gonzalez reminded me a lot of Floyd Mayweather Jr. the way he was making Burns miss and was nailing him with beautiful counter shots. It was incredible to watch him work. It’s just too bad it had to end like this because now some people are calling Gonzalez a quitter instead of slathering him with well-deserved compliments from head to toe.



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