GLASGOW, Scotland — WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns got the biggest scare of his professional career last night, going into the tenth round down on all cards after being soundly outboxed most of the fight by undefeated challenger Jose Gonzalez. But the champion, behind steady late pressure and a stroke a luck, retained his title via stoppage after Gonzalez shockingly quit on his stool due to a left wrist injury.
Fighting in his first bout since September 2012 and under new promoter Eddie Hearn, Burns look lethargic through the first seven rounds and was constantly stunned by accurate counters from the faster Gonzalez. When Burns attempted to take the fight inside, Gonzalez was able to score better with uppercuts and hooks to the body. Gonzalez succeeded in forcing Burns to backpedal several times due to his hard, clean punching.
Burns started to turn the tide in the eighth, when Gonzalez’s punch output dropped. Burns did his best work with hooks to the body and Gonzalez continued to backpedal away without throwing much in the ninth, likely due to the wrist injury. Before the tenth and against the pleading of his corner to continue, Gonzalez retired on his stool, giving Burns the third successful defense of his title.
“I injured my left wrist,” Gonzalez explained afterward. “It happened when I landed a punch that connected to the body of Burns. I partially hit his elbow and hurt my hand. I tried to continue, but the pain was too great and I couldn’t use my hand. I didn’t know how the fight was being scored on the cards, but I felt I was dominating him. I didn’t feel any of Burns’ punches. Also, most of the punches from Burns hit my gloves or missed.”
Burns improves to 36-2 (11 KOs), while Gonzalez falls to 22-1 (17 KOs). The entire fight can be viewed below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvMZ2FCDsOQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player]*********************************************************
Well that was a strange finish, wasn’t it? It was good for Burns that it wasn’t Miguel Vazquez or Adrien Broner in there with him last night. Nonetheless, he deserves a lot of credit for not getting discouraged and continuing to go after Gonzalez. It wasn’t just the wrist injury that made Gonzalez quit. It was the fact he threw his best punches (the ones that until now had KO’d most of his opponents) and Burns refused to go anywhere. The Burns pressure, combined with the mental stress of not having any previous experience past the eighth round, caused Gonzalez to mentally fold. You can bet he’ll regret this decision much like Vitali Klitschko did after quitting to Chris Byrd. What’s next for Burns? Despite how bad he looked for most of the fight, this definitely has to be a confidence builder. I think one more solid fight is needed before going with his original unification plans against Vazquez.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 
strange aint the word lol what a relief gonzalez quit, even if you got a broken hand or wrist (which i dont believe) he only had to stay outta range for couple rounds and he woulda won… imo he just tired himself out and got disheartened after the 7th… gonzalez has proven himself worldclass though, no1 knew anything about him before last night… he was extremely awkward and rangy, was impossible for ricky to get close to him… i think broner would be an easier take, least he could get in close and let some punches go!!!