By Mark Vester
On Saturday night at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall, Ricky Burns upset the odds by unseating undefeated Roman Martinez for his WBO super featherweight title. Burns took the fight to Martinez, stunning the hard punching Puerto Rican boxer witrh several hard shots throughout the fight. The punching display by Burns, who only has 7 knockouts in his 28 wins, even shocked the British announcers who were calling the fight. Burns even surprised himself. The Scottish boxer a big underdog, even in his own country.
"The better the opponent, the better I box. I just made a statement to everyone that doubted me. I proved I belong at world level," Burns said. "I have always been confident in my own ability. The heart and the grit that I showed out there - I surprised myself actually. It's struggling to sink in."
"The crowd played a big part in this tonight. They were excellent. Martinez is a true champion. What a hard 12 rounds it was. I am feeling sore already. The pace we set in training was unbelievable. The two of us always bring out the best in each other."
The fight looked in jeopardy for Burns in the first round. Martinez caught him cold with a big right hand to send him down. Burns held on and won the majority of the following rounds. He had Martinez in serious trouble in the twelfth round.
"It was a clean shot, I'll give him that - throughout the fight he did catch us a few times - but as I said before I do have a good chin and I took them well," Burns told Sky Sports. "I had to grit my teeth every round there and I'm just overwhelmed. I couldn't ask for a better camp behind me, the build up to this fight all I could think about was winning this world title, and now it's here I don't know what to say."
