Namibian Julius Indongo “The Blue Machine” defeated Ricky Burns to gain the World Super-Lightweight title by a unanimous decision of 120-108, 118-110,116-112 thereby taking his tally to 22 wins in 22 fights.
Indongo and Burns went into the unification fight as IBF/IBO Super- Light Weight World Champion and WBA Super-Lightweight World Champion respectively. Burns was trying to take the IBF version away from Indongo, only to be outshone in over 12 tough rounds.
The Blue Machine made a fast start with his wild and wide shots firing in from all angles, throwing haymakers like he was playing a video game but Burns, kept calm and did well to avoid majority of the punches.
The first round was close with Indongo edging it 10-9 and by fourth round, he was the busier fighter leaving Burns struggling to get any consistent output.
A blistering barrage of rights in the fifth and a stunning left hook almost took out the Coat bridge man. Burns was unable to respond to the body shots the Namibian was throwing.
The Scotsman had a brief moment of success in the sixth round but the 34-year-old fired back instantly and nearly knocked him out of his boots with a short uppercut.
Getty Images
Burns rallied in the seventh, as he showed the will to win putting up the best round of the fight as he was more aggressive to push Indongo back.
However, the moment was short-lived as Indongo fired back in the eighth round laying a right jab on Burns and causing more damage with his skill and powerful punches.
The Namibian looked set to be the first man to stop the three-weight world champion as he pummeled on the Scotsman in the ninth round.
With one round away from unifying the WBA and IBF titles, Indongo sent Burns tumbling to the canvas twice and although neither was deemed a knockdown, the situation underlined just how hard Indongo had made it.
Ricky Burns tumbles to the canvas. (Getty Images)
Indongo was too much for Burns from the start and his jab, height, and reach advantage in addition to the pressure, caused Burns problems from the start as he had no answers for the Namibian.
Burns said after the fight,
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“The better man won, he was so, so awkward. As the pace slowed down, he started fast, he was catching me, the better man won on the night.[/perfectpullquote]
“All the doubters will write me off but I’ll come again.”
Featured photo: IBF/IBO Super-Lightweight World Champion Julius Indongo celebrates after beating WBA Super-Lightweight World Champion Ricky Burn during the World Super-Lightweight unification bout between Ricky Burns of Scotland and Julius Indongo of Namibia at The SSE Hydro on April 15, 2017 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)
