Indongo batters Burns to unanimous decision
IBF light welterweight champion Julius Indongo (22-1, 11 KOs) defeated WBA champion Ricky Burns (41-6-1, 14 KOs) by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in a unification clash on Saturday night at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.
Indongo, little known outside of his homeland of Namibia before he dethroned Russia's Eduard Troyanovsky by a 40 second first round knockout in December, was busier, outboxed and hit harder than Burns and won by scores of 120-108, 118-110 and 116-112.
The Namibian used his height and reach advantage to dominate the action from the start and he teed off on Burns with left hands to the body and right hooks to the head in the first round.
Burns attempted to land some shots, but he could not get any offence going against the aggressive southpaw.
Indongo continued to stalk the Scotsman around the ring in the following rounds as he was landing punches at will.
Burns looked close to being stopped for the first time in his career in the eighth when Indongo blasted away at him.
But that did not happen as the 34-year-old Burns showed his toughness and fired back with punches in the later rounds.
However Indongo, also 34, remained in control and the decision was never in doubt.
With the win, Indongo adds the WBA 140lb belt to his IBF title.
"I feel very proud. I’m very happy," said Indongo.
"My home crowd are watching. It’s for the whole of Africa. This is so great."
Burns said: "He was very awkward. He was a lot better than we thought he was going to be. He can hit as well. I’ll come again.
"He had the reach advantage. He was catching me. The better man won tonight."
Also on the card, Robbie Barrett (15-2-1, 1 KOs) dethroned previously unbeaten Scott Cardle (21-1-1, 7 KOs) to win the British lightweight title by a 12 round majority decision.
Barrett was floored in the second and fifth rounds, but as the fight progressed he outfought Cardle, who was cut in the fifth.
The judges scored it 114-112 and 115-113 for Barrett, while the third had it 114-114.
Cardle was making his third title defence.
Charlie Edwards (10-1, 4 KOs) easily outpointed Iain Butcher (16-3, 5 KOs) to win the vacant British super flyweight title.
Edwards was fighting for the first time under new trainer Adam Booth and has moved up in weight following his 10th round stoppage loss to John Riel Casimero in a IBF flyweight title bout last September.