Ricky Burns came through his first WBA 140-pound title defence last night in his Glasgow fortress, but the 12 round unanimous decision he picked up against a fierce and determined Kiryl Relikh raised plenty of eyebrows. The fight was a war and it was a shock when, after the 12 gruelling rounds were over, the final scores of the three judges were so wide in favour of Burns.
116-112 (twice) was bad enough, but the 118-110 tally handed in by the third judge was abysmal, and insulting to the magnificent effort put in by Relikh. Ideally, in a fair world, Relikh, now a far bigger name than he was prior to last night’s defeat, the first of his career, would be granted a rematch. It doesn’t look like happening, however, as Burns – a one or two point winner in the opinion of many observers last night, with a good number having Relikh the winner by a similar margin; with others feeling a draw would have been the fairest result – is looking at a big Las Vegas fight with Adrien Broner next.
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