WE LIVE in an age the place superlatives are bandied round to the diploma that they change into meaningless, however this was removed from the case in Glasgow the place “The Battle of The Legends” was precisely as billed.
To repeat any of final week’s BN preview would take up helpful column inches, however the achievements of Ricky Burns and Willie Limond contained in the squared circle have made them bona fide legends to the general public of Scotland. And this bout, in the end gained in eight by Burns, offered one final likelihood to see these heroes field within the flesh.
The occasion garnered a lot consideration within the build-up and had the texture of a proper passing of the baton, with shared opponent and former WBO belt-holder Alex Arthur on punditry duties for the BBC, Josh Taylor, John Ryder, Lee McGregor and Nathaniel Collins among the many energetic fighters in attendance, and the supporting bouts that includes among the nation’s greatest prospects.
Both fighters are coaches for Boxing Scotland, and clearly get alongside, however any friendship was placed on maintain the second this contest was introduced. Furthermore, anybody nonetheless harbouring ideas that this was going to be an exhibition was quickly disabused of that notion within the opening seconds as Limond instantly discovered Burns with a straight proper and took ring centre. The two then exchanged leather-based all through the opener as Burns circled and calculated his vary earlier than periodically foraying with jabs to the top and lengthy rights to the physique of Limond who, extremely, had shed 4 stones in weight for the competition.
That sample continued for a lot of the second, nevertheless it was obvious from that early stage that Burns, who at 40 was 4 years his opponent’s junior, was the sharper of the 2. He utilised his nonetheless wonderful footwork to usually change path, forcing Garthamlock’s Limond to always reset his personal stance in an effort to catch the Coatbridge fighter. Burns, in flip, elevated the regularity of his assaults and vied to take ring centre for himself.
The motion ebbed and flowed, with every fighter’s successes triggering the opposite to retaliate in variety however, though the very best punch of the third spherical was a proper that discovered a house behind Burns’ guard and momentarily stiffened his legs, the tide of the competition shifted on this stanza when a shot from the favorite seemed to interrupt Limond’s nostril. The ensuing bleeding proved deeply problematic for Limond for the rest of the competition.
Burns focused each this harm and his opponent’s physique in an try to interrupt his stamina and resolve, however Limond spat defiance and, to his nice credit score, by no means stopped pushing ahead, catching Burns with a cracking proper hand counter within the fourth, though the previous three-weight ‘world’ belt-holder confirmed his famed sturdiness persists by shaking off the results inside seconds and going straight again to work.
As the competition unfolded, Burns’ successes grew extra frequent, together with the punch of the combat – a textbook proper uppercut within the sixth – as Limond’s face grew to become a multitude, with each fighters, occasionally, slipping on the blood-soaked canvas. Limond’s nook fought valiantly to stem the move, however his discomfort and irritation was escalating to misery as he struggled to breathe between classes.
The stage of fatigue Limond was enduring was obvious to all, however he’s a fighter by means of and by means of and it took the compassion of referee Victor Laughlin, met with figuring out and accepting appears from his nook, to place a cease to the competition on the finish of the eighth spherical. Burns went straight to Limond’s nook, and the 2 fighters hugged and confirmed mutual respect, mates as soon as extra after sharing a brutal contest of will, expertise and coronary heart.
Post-fight Limond introduced that this was the tip of the street for him, with Burns reticent to make the identical dedication and evidently harbouring hopes of one other contest to return. However, with his long-declared want to return to Glasgow for a last victorious outing fulfilled, there might be no extra becoming finish to an extended, onerous, and stellar profession than this one. Mission nicely and actually achieved.
The chief-support in a stacked nine-bout undercard was Jack Turner going through Cumbernauld’s Andy Tham for the vacant Scottish featherweight title. Turner is a recognized puncher within the fitness center and had vowed to cease Tham within the first half of the combat, nevertheless it was evident from the opening seconds that this might not be straightforward to perform. Tham went straight to work with blistering hand velocity and, ultimately, proved that he was the puncher by placing Turner on the canvas within the third earlier than unleashing a proper within the sixth which caught the Glasgow fighter beneath the ear and, with his legs at sea, Kenny McIntyre displayed high class refereeing by intervening at 2-24 earlier than any extra punishment might be administered.
Knockdown of the evening was scored by Newarthill’s Martin Crossan. One proper hand to the jaw left Elgin’s Andrew Smart scrambling on the canvas, a lot in order that he needed to twice stand up earlier than continuing. Crossan wouldn’t let him off the hook and floored him closely once more, with Kenny Pringle waving the combat off with solely two seconds of the primary spherical remaining and Crossan retaining his Scottish light-weight title.
Mr Pringle additionally supervised early finishes from Matt McHale (Edinburgh), who battered a severely overmatched Steven Maguire (Middleton) in 4 rounds (1-55), and Commonwealth bronze medallist Tyler Jolly (Dumfries), who beat the resistance out of Greenland’s Frank Madsen, who was rescued at 2-30 of the fourth. Glasgow’s Reece Porter produced the evening’s different stoppage when, after flattening Lithuania’s Egidijus Zukas, he adopted up with a flurry of concussive blows which persuaded Mr McIntyre to cease the competition after simply 84 seconds.
McIntyre additionally oversaw: Willie’s son Jake Limond of Glasgow impressing with a second-round knockdown and extensive 60-53 factors victory over Christchurch’s Stefan Vincent; Dundee’s Charlie Doig displayed his rising skillset, outpointing Wolverhampton’s sport Clayton Bricknell by a rating of 78-74; and Josh Campbell of Cardonald flattening and simply outpointing Polish customer Jakub Laskowski. Stirling’s Taylor Coyle, in the meantime, seemed fortunate to share the spoils – Mr Pringle scoring 38-38 – with Ukrainian Artem Liashevych.
THE VERDICT: Burns exhibits he has extra left than Limond however that shouldn’t persuade him to go once more. This was the right goodbye.
Source link
