Burns Trumps King For Knockout In Dull Affair

By Shaun Brown

After the pulsating clash between Scotty Cardle and Sean Dodd beforehand, Liverpool’s Echo Arena had little to get into during the Ricky Burns-Josh King lightweight contest.

Burns, a former two-weight world champion showed glimpses of what led him to glory and titles over the likes of Rocky Martinez and Kevin Mitchell and ended matters in the eleventh round with a wicked left hook to the body, a punch that the Scot looked for throughout.

In what was, for most of it, a dull and lacklustre affair both men were deducted a point each for various warnings. King in the fourth and Burns in the tenth respectively. The former lightweight champion looked too often to use his size advantage against his Australian foe rather using the jab to better effect therefore controlling the centre of the ring.

King, who moves to (20-4, 9 KOs) did have fleeting moments of success to Burns' chin but never enough for the Scot to take a backward step in retreat.

Burns, now 32-years-old, moves to (39-5-1, 12 KOs) and picks up the WBO International lightweight belt for his troubles.

A hoarse sounding Burns told Sky Sports: “The rounds were scrappy. (Trainer) Tony [Sims] wanted me to go out behind the jab. I wanted to go out and enjoy it. The main thing is I got the win. Some of the things we worked on in the gym were working. There’s some big fights out there. I’m disappointed because I could’ve done better."