Burns retains world title against the Columbian Viking
Coatbridge's Ricky Burns retained his WBO super-featherweight title in a packed Braehead arena on points, against an extremely game Norwegian Andreas Evensen on Saturday night. Evensen, born in Columbia but adopted into a Norwegian family gave absolutely everything over the 12 rounds, but ultimately came up short since you don't get points for heart.
In a reversal of Burns' fight when he took the title against Roman Martinez in September, he (Burns) put Evensen down on the canvas with a short right to the temple inside 10 seconds of the opening bell. It has to be said the Norwegian was off balance, but the shot did connect and he did touch down onto the canvas so that was a 10-8 opener. There were periods in the bout when you thought that Ricky Burns would dominate the smaller, yet stockier Evensen showed more heart than ability and obviously doesn't know the meaning of reversing as he came forward throughout the bout.
By round 4 the eager-beaver style of the South American Viking from Trondheim was unsettling Burns to the extent it was not the fluid style we've come to expect from the Coatbridge boxer. Nonetheless, he maximised his reach and height advantage over Evensen, to take the rounds with a modicum of comfort without ever looking his best in front of his adoring home fans. Round 6 was probably the best round for the Norwegian and he'd have taken it on work-rate alone. Burns' defence is almost water-tight and it needs to be as Evensen is a veritable human dynamo.
This is the Norwegian's big chance and unlike a former gold medal winning Olympian, he's taking it with both hands! These opportunities don't come round that often, especially when professional boxing is banned in your home country, so fair play to Evensen he's well up for it! Round 9 saw a lull in Burns' work in what was a see-saw round and probably scored evenly, but two cracking rights, an uppercut and a hook cum cross did wobble the pint sized Viking in round 11. The final round saw the durable Evensen draw every last drop from his well of courage and strength, but Burns was not going to be found with a leaking defence in the final round.
The unanimous decision (119-108 twice and 118-109) was greeted with approval from the home fans, but they also recognised the effort the Viking had put into this bout. It wasn't a classic by any means, but it was absorbing throughout and the weight of expectation of both the media north of the border and his expanding fan-base probably placed more pressure on Burns than his opponent.
