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Last night at Braehead Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, WBO super feather champ Ricky Burns made his first title defense, outpointing challenger Andreas Evensen.
Going into the contest, Burns had far more experience on paper than the challenger, who was coming up from limited experience at featherweight and this almost spelled disaster for Evensen, who was downed immediately as the fight began.
But Evensen beat the count and pressed Burns for the remainder of the rounds. While the challenger was the busier man, Burns showed his greater skills in countering effectively and never letting Evensen become more than sporadically successful.
After the 12 rounds were over, Burns was awarded the decision 119-108 on all three scorecards. The Coatbridge resident’s record now stands at 30-2 (7), while Norway’s Evensen falls to 13-2 (5).
There was an upset on the chief support bout as former British featherweight titlist Paul Appleby, 16-2 (11), was outboxed by Ghana’s Joseph Laryea, 14-4 (11), over 12 rounds with Laryea taking the split decision verdict to win the vacant WBO Intercontinental super feather strap.
Ex-Interim WBO super feather ruler Alex Arthur, 29-3 (20), won all eight rounds on points against veteran Jay Morris, 13-17-1 (4), at light welter.
