American boxer Terence Crawford scored a relatively clear and unanimous 12 round points win over Ricky Burns to claim the WBO light title in Glasgow, Scotland on Saturday night.
Burns, who suffered a horrific jaw injury against Raymundo Beltran during his controversial draw last time out, had no cause for complaint after hearing the 117-111 and 116-112 twice points verdict announced.
Burns was supported by a sold out and highly vocal local crowd but it was not enough to spur him on to victory. Crawford, the WBO mandatory challenger went into the fight a slight favourite and he proved his No.1 standing was well founded.
Crawford began to show off his skills after a pretty tame opening round and constantly switched stances whiles piling up the points as Burns failed to find his range. while Burns was unable to find his range.
Burns always marched forward looking take advantage of any weakness but Crawford kept his composure throughout and constantly dominated with some slick combination punching.
Burns was gracious in defeat afterwards telling Sky Sports: "It was a tricky fight in there. Very awkward, especially with the switch-hitting. I found it hard to get my shots off.
"The best man won on the night but I’ll be back. First thing I said to Eddie (Hearn, promoter) after the fight was ’we’ll be chasing for a rematch’. Hopefully, we can get that sorted.
"I took a good body shot in one of the rounds but I managed to recover and I also took a head shot. I have proved I can take it.
Burns Added: "He boxed well, good on him. You can see why he’s being touted as the next big thing in America.
On the undercard Olympic super heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua took just one round to take out Hector Alfredo Avila.
Other results from Glasgow
lightweight John Murray w pts 12 John Simpson
super middleweight David Brophy w pts 8 Jamie Ambler
lightweight Scott Cardle w tko 8 Paul Appleby
middleweight Anthony Ogogo w pts 6 Greg O’Neill
super featherweight Martin Joseph Ward w tko 4 Craig Woodruff super featherweight Michael Roberts w pts 6 Romain Peker
bantamweight Scott Allan w pts 4 Francis Croes
super featherweight Ryan Collins w pts 4 Mariusz Bak
