Ricky Burns Defeats Kiryl Relikh – Boxing News

By Jeffrey “Italian Medallion” Cellini

Over the weekend in Glasgow, Scotland, WBA Super Lightweight champion Ricky Burns, 41-5-1, 14 KO’s survived some anxious moments to out-point Kiryl Relikh,21-1, 19 KO’s and win a unanimous decision. The Scottish fighter was able to prevail on all three judges’ scorecards by tallies of 118-110 and116-112 (twice).

The victory for Burn’s, the first defense of his title, has probably set up a big money fight with four -weight world champion Adrien Broner,32-2, 24 KO’s later this year. Promoter Eddie Hearn is confident Burns and Broner will meet. “I think it’s time to go on the road and Adrien Broner is 100 percent the fight Ricky wants and we’re going to push for it in December,” said Hearn.

The challenger Relikh started the fight with an assault that caught Burns off guard early, and had the champion in a little of trouble in the second round. After losing the first two rounds, Burns regathered himself and won the next few rounds, capitalized by a crushing left hook in the fifth round. Burns controlled most of the fight throughout the middle rounds, particularly the eighth round when the champion displayed punching accuracy and a solid defense. However, Relikh started rallying in the tenth round, and once again, hurt the champion with several body shots. The challenger made a late charge in the final two rounds, but was unable to pull off the upset. Relikh wanted to turn the fight into a brawl; unfortunately, Burns was able to use his boxing skills to stay out of trouble.

Ricky Burns became Scotland’s first three-weight world champion when he knocked out Italy’s Michele Di Rocco in the eighth round to win the vacant belt five months ago.

The Junior Welterweight division still belongs to Terence Crawford (WBO/WBC/Ring champion) at this time. Eduard Troyanovsky (IBF) is currently the other world champion.

On the same card, Dillian Whyte, 19-1, 14 KO’s captured the vacant British Heavyweight title when he stopped Ian Lewison, 12-3-1, 8 KO’s after ten rounds. Lewison, suffering from a nose injury, retired at the end of the tenth round. Whyte now has sights on getting a rematch next year with the IBF World Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.

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