Burns retains WBO title in hard-fought win
Ricky Burns (36-2) retained his WBO lightweight title after Jose Gonzalez (22-1) stayed on his stool at the end of the 9th round after a tremendous challenge at the Emirates Arena, Glasgow on Saturday night.
The 29-year-old mandatory challenger from Puerto Rico went into the fight unbeaten in 22 bouts but an injury, believed to be a broken left wrist, scuppered his world title bid.
At that point, there was little to separate the two as Burns was tested to the full in this thrid title defence.
And the 30-year-old Scot must have experienced as much relief as delight when the bout was ended prematurely.
The boxers started jabbing in the first round, Burns let his hands go near the end of the round but was getting countered by Gonzalez's hard shots. Burns continued to miss many of his shots in the early rounds while Gonzalez was able to counter to head and body. Gonzalez was finding the mark and he was picking off Burns' returns. In the 4th Burns started trading punches with Gonzalez, landing a few and taking some hard shots back. Gonzalez let his hands go in the 5th, drilling the body of Burns with hard punches.
In the 7th, they went to war after Gonzalez rocked Burns and tried to finish him off against the ropes. Burns stayed up and was trading big punches, landing a few to push Gonzalez back. Gonzalez continued to press and was unloading to the head and body of Burns. Gonzalez seemed to tire and took off in the 8th. Burns began to take over as Gonzalez wasn't throwing as many punches in the 9th.
Gonzalez, who looked very tired, would not come out for the 10th round citing the injury and Burns was given the TKO win.
"He caught me with a few good shots - but I proved I can take a good shot," a relieved Burns said. "I'm out there to make the fight exciting, but maybe I need to go back to the drawing board a wee bit."
On the undercard John Simpson (25-9) was too accurate and too composed for Choi Tseveenpurev (36-7) from Mongolia. The Greenock fighter took the vacant WBO Inter-Continental super featherweight title with a unanimous points win. The scores were 116-112, 117-112 and 116-113.
Steven Simmons (8-0) picked up a 3rd round stoppage win over Michael Sweeney (12-3-1) to capture the vacant British Celtic cruiserweight title.
Lightweight prospect Micheal Roberts (12-0) secured a six round decision over Mariusz Bak (2-4), winning with a score of 58-57.
Super middleweight contender David Brophy (7-0-1) won a six round decision over Gary Boulden (7-8-2), winning with a score of 58-57.
Super middleweight contender Rocky Fielding (14-0) stopped Michal Nieroda (11-4) in the first round of their scheduled eight.