Fans witnessed a KO of The Year contender last night at the historic York Hall in London. unfortunately, the sport also suffered a black eye in the form of some post-fight brawling that included one fan being knocked unconscious by a thrown chair.
The main event saw Hosea Burton face unbeaten Ellis Zorro in a bout that contested the WBO European cruiserweight title. Zorro from London scored a sizzling KO in round 7, his right hand to the head leaving Burton flat on his back and in a bad way.
Trainer Joe Gallagher saw instantly how hurt his fighter was and he piled into the ring to attend to the stricken Burton. Ellis, now 16-0(7) suffered a broken nose in the fight and both guys bled in there. Burton, who said before last night’s fight that he would retire from the sport if he failed to beat Ellis, is now 28-4(12) and he has some big decision making to do.
It was a good fight, tough and testing, yet the more experienced Burton seemed to be edging the rounds. But then Ellis exploded in round seven. Burton went down earlier in the round, the third man in the ring calling it no knockdown – before Ellis put Burton’s lights out with his smashing right hand. Ellis sure made a name for himself last night and it will certainly prove interesting seeing how far he can go.
But shortly after the fight ended, fans upset with the, well, the upset, went wild, the Brawl disgusting to see. We can only hope the poor soul who was sent flying by that chair is okay. Boxing has of course witnessed crowd trouble before, and it no doubt will again. But last night was bad.
A historic venue such as the cherished York Hall deserves better. Burton is of course the cousin of WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury.
