Burns undercard: Appleby shocked by rank outsider
The undercard of the Ricky Burns fight had (potentially) a lead in for South Queensferry's Paul Appleby to meet the Coatbridge world champion in a Scottish super-fight, all he had to do was to dispose of the Ghanaian Joseph Laryea in his WBO Intercontinental super-featherweight title challenge. Appleby was odds on to win and the gangly Ghanaian was an almost unbelievable 20-1 against!
As Robert Burns immortally quoted "The best laid plans o' men and mice ging aft aglay", then so did Appleby's plans for his own "Burns Night" with Ricky. He was out-reached and had his face as a target for the spear like jabs of the African, to the extent that he looked almost bemused by his own inability to rattle Laryea. There were glimpses of the old arrogance and punching power that we all know he has, but nothing near enough for him to win this bauble. He also suffered two cuts, the last of which rendered the end of the bout like the back shop of a "Halal Butcher" with the blood pouring from the Edinburgh man's left eye.
Terry O'Connor did give Appleby an opportunity to see the bout out as the blood wasn't impeding his vision, but in truth he was in need of a couple of knockdowns and a transfusion to change the result. That said, the Hungarian judge did actually give it to Appleby by 115-113, in a decision which was as diabolical as the voting which took place in Zurich last week when England were robbed blindly for the 2018 World Cup!
Scotland's gold medal winning amateur Callum Johnson (managed by Naseem Hamed) made his professional debut with a 2nd round tko over Phil Townley when Kenny Pringle stepped in at 1.53 of the round to save Townley from the shellacking he was getting while hemmed in the neutral corner. There'll be more than a "Tea Party" in Boston (in Lincs for the geographically challenged) to celebrate this victory I suspect.
Michael Roberts jnr continued his winning start to his professional career with a shut-out points victory over Dan Carr. Carr is obviously no respecter of new kids on the block and utilised all his craft (and a bit more which earned him a word from Victor Loughlin) to make it rough for Roberts. The new kid earned the plaudits though and the win.
John Thain needed only 1.20 seconds to force a stoppage with a left jab in his short lived bout against Ian Eldridge.
"Amazin Alex Arthur" seemed somewhat laboured in his victory over Jay Morris, with a left putting Morris down in the 6th but AAA failing to capitalise on his obvious class, despite some frankly needless show-boating towards the end of the eight rounder. Arthur really ought, even at 32 years of age to be, putting this type of opponent away! He didn't and once again the former "golden boy" of Scottish Boxing perhaps ought to consider where he wants to be in this period of his life. Morris it has to be said showed himself to be game and not in any way over-awed.
Steven Ormond had a 6th round tko against Sebastian Cornu with a lovely left hook 59 seconds into the final salvo when Victor Loughlin dispensed with the count.
Craig Evans had a shut out 40-36 against Paddy McGarrity in what was a pretty turgid and messy affair.
Tobias Webb opened proceedings with a four-round points win over Dean Walker, as did George Michael Carman against Wayne Downing.
