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Ricky Burns vs. Julius Indongo

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2017 boxing match

Ricky Burns vs. Julius Indongo
Date15 April 2017
VenueScottish Hydro Arena, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Title(s) on the lineWBA, IBF and IBO light welterweight titles
Tale of the tape
Boxer Ricky Burns Julius Indongo
Nickname "The Rickster" "Blue Machine"
Hometown Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, UK Windhoek, Khomas Region, Namibia
Pre-fight record 41–5–1 (14 KO) 21–0 (11 KO)
Age 34 years 34 years, 2 months
Height 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) 5 ft 10+1⁄2 in (179 cm)
Weight 139+1⁄4 lb (63 kg) 139+1⁄4 lb (63 kg)
Style Orthodox Southpaw
Recognition WBA
Light Welterweight Champion
The Ring
No. 5 Ranked Light Welterweight
TBRB
No. 9 Ranked Light Welterweight
3-division world champion		 IBF and IBO
Light Welterweight Champion
TBRB
No. 2 Ranked Light Welterweight
The Ring
No. 7 Ranked Light Welterweight
Result
Indongo defeats Burns by unanimous decision

Ricky Burns vs. Julius Indongo was a professional boxing match contested on 15 April 2017, for the WBA, IBF and IBO light welterweight championship.

Background

Since winning the vacant WBA 140 lb title in May 2016, to become only the second Brit to win major world titles in three divisions (after Bob Fitzsimmons in 1903), Ricky Burns had made one successful defence against mandatory Kiryl Relikh, running out an unanimous decision winner in October. Following this victory a December fight against former champion Adrien Broner (who had held the WBA belt before Burns but had been stripped for missing weight in March), possibly in the US, was mooted.

In late December 2016 however, there were talks for a potential unification bout between Burns and IBF and IBO champion Julius Indongo, who had acquired the titles after knocking out then undefeated Eduard Troyanovsky in less than a minute on 3 December, in his first bout outside of his native Namibia. Also, in January 2017, Freddie Roach named Burns a potential opponent for Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao for 23 April bout. On 9 January, Burns's manager Tommy Morrison confirmed a deal was being put together for Burns to fight Indongo in April at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow. On 11 January, Sky Sports confirmed a deal was reached for Burns and Indongo in a unification title bout on 15 April. This was Scotland's first ever unification fight.

It was hoped that a victory for Burns would set up potential bouts with Broner, former Lightweight champion Anthony Crolla or an undisputed showdown with Terence Crawford, who had beaten Burns back in March 2014.

Indongo would tell BBC Scotland that he believed that Burns was making a lot of mistakes that he could take advance of saying "He is making a lot of mistakes, if he is not aware of those mistakes, I feel pity for him." He also revealed that the Namibian president, Hage Geingob, had spoken to him in advance of the bout "I have been sent on a mission by my president, and also by the force, because I work as a police officer. I received his blessing and he recommended that I should always keep my guard. He is a man of sport and loves sport very much. It is no pressure. It is an honour. I have been given a privilege and I have to take that responsibility.

In the days before the bout Burns would admit that this was the biggest fight of his career, saying "I said it as soon as the fight was made, for me this is the biggest fight. These unification fights have been spoken about my whole career, now we're just about there so I couldn't be happier with the way all the preparations have gone. I just want to get in and get on with it."

Burns was a 8/15 favorite to win with Indongo the underdog at 7/5.

The fight

The opening round saw Indongo use his height and reach advantage to control the action with his jab, with Burns continuing his recent tendency to start a bout slowly before finding his rhythm. Indongo's greater work-rate and accuracy continued through the first four rounds before Burns began to find the mark more frequently with his right hand in the next two, forcing Indongo back with his aggression. Although Indongo was never able to hurt Burns, his accumulation cleaner punches landed meant that as the bout moved towards the championship rounds, Burns appeared to need to stop Indongo in order to keep his title. As Burns over-stretched attempting to land a match altering shot he thrice found himself on the canvas but these were all ruled as a slips. The fight landed the full 12 round distance and Indongo was awarded an unanimous decision victory with scores of 120–108, 118–110 and 116–112.

Aftermath

Speaking after the bout Indongo said "I feel very proud. My home crowd are watching. It's for the whole of Africa. This is so great. I am very proud for opening my doors and now the world can see me."

Following the defeat, Burns praised the new unified champion, "He was so so awkward. He was a lot better than we thought he was going to be. He can hit as well. He started the rounds fast and the height and reach advantage meant he was out of my distance." He also said that he wouldn't retire, "I'm going to have all the doubters saying I'm finished - but I'll come again".

Trainer Adam Booth, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra criticized Burns' performance as one-dimensional, saying "It was pretty one-dimensional from Ricky Burns, who was trying to jump in from long distance on a fighter who was bigger, with longer arms and a heavy puncher. Indongo was dominant, knew what he was about, kept swinging dangerous bombs and didn't let Burns in at all. In the last two rounds, when he had the match won, he still wanted to dominate, and like true champions, wanted to get rid of his challenger. He ticks all the right boxes. It is going to take a high-level operator to cope with him. I think Terence Crawford is that kind of guy."

Later Burns suggested that that he was "not entertaining" an all-Scottish fight against Commonwealth champion, Josh Taylor, while his promoter Eddie Hearn mooted either the bout with Broner or Crolla.

On 1 July, promoters Top Rank announced that Indongo and WBC, WBO, Ring magazine and lineal champion Terence Crawford had agreed to face each other on 19 August in Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S., to determine the first undisputed light welterweight champion since Kostya Tszyu in 2004 and the first undisputed champion in any weight class since the WBO became fully recognized as the fourth major sanctioning body in 2007.

Undercard

Confirmed bouts:

Winner Loser Weight division/title belt(s) disputed Result
United Kingdom Charlie Edwards United Kingdom Iain Butcher vacant British Super Flyweight title Unanimous decision
United Kingdom Josh Kelly Republic of Ireland Jay Byrne Middleweight (8 rounds) Points decision
United Kingdom Robbie Barrett United Kingdom Scott Cardle British Lightweight title Majority decision
United Kingdom Lawrence Okolie Poland Lukasz Rusiewicz Cruiserweight (4 rounds) 1st-round TKO
Preliminary bouts
United Kingdom Charlie Flynn United Kingdom Ryan Collins vacant Celtic Lightweight title Technical draw
United Kingdom Joe Ham United Kingdom Scott McCormack Scottish Super Bantamweight title Points decision
Non-TV bouts
United Kingdom Ryan Smith United Kingdom Josh Thorne Light Welterweight (4 rounds) Unanimous decision
United Kingdom Ally Black United Kingdom Mark Weston Welterweight (4 rounds) 1st round TKO
United Kingdom Lewis Paulin United Kingdom Luke Fash Super Featherweight (4 rounds) 4th round TKO

Broadcasting

Country Broadcaster
 Hungary Sport 1
 Panama Cable Onda Sports
 United Kingdom Sky Sports

References

  1. "Ricky Burns vs. Julius Indongo". boxrec.com. BoxRec. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
  2. "Burns vs Relikh: Ricky Burns beats Kiryl Relikh to hold on to WBA world title". Sky Sports. 7 October 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  3. "Ricky Burns can set up Adrien Broner fight by beating Kiryl Relikh". Sky Sports. 30 September 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  4. "Ricky Burns and Adrien Broner in line to face each other in Las Vegas this December". Sky Sports. 8 October 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  5. "Burns vs. Indongo unification clash?". Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  6. "Ricky Burns vs. Julius Indongo in the works". 27 December 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  7. "Roach says Burns or Horn possible for Pacquiao's April fight". 7 January 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  8. "Ricky Burns could have unification fight with Julius Indongo in Glasgow, says Alex Morrison". Sky Sports. 9 January 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  9. "Ricky Burns lands Hydro unification fight against Namibian". 8 January 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  10. "Ricky Burns-Julius Indongo 140-pound unification bout is set". 11 January 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  11. "Ricky Burns, Julius Indongo in junior welterweight unification bout". ESPN. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  12. "Ricky Burns to face Julius Indongo in Glasgow live on Sky Sports". Sky Sports. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  13. "Ricky Burns set for Scotland's first ever unification fight – The Ring". The Ring. 13 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  14. "Ricky Burns v Julius Indongo: Alex Arthur sees huge incentive for Burns to win". bbc.co.uk. BBC. 13 April 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  15. "Ricky Burns aims to show Julius Indongo he is far from retirement". bbc.co.uk. BBC. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  16. Keir Murray (12 April 2017). "Ricky Burns v Julius Indongo: Namibian plans to take advantage of Scot's 'flaws'". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  17. Michael Cantillon (13 April 2017). "Ricky Burns v Julius Indongo: Scot ready for 'biggest fight'". skysports.com. Sky Sports. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  18. Coral Barry (12 April 2017). "Ricky Burns vs Julius Indongo TV channel, undercard, fight time, date and odds". The Metro. Associated Newspapers Limited. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  19. Alex Bysouth (15 April 2017). "Relive Burns' title fight with Indongo". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  20. "Ricky Burns has no answers for Indongo". ESPN. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  21. "Ricky Burns loses WBA super-lightweight belt to Julius Indongo in Glasgow". BBC Sport. 15 April 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  22. Keir Murray (16 April 2017). "Ricky Burns: Where does Scotland's former world champion go from here?". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  23. "Lomachenko-Marriaga on 8/5, Crawford-Indongo on 8/19 - ESPN - Boxing News". www.boxingscene.com. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  24. "Terence Crawford's world title unification clash with Julius Indongo is live on Sky Sports". Sky Sports. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  25. "BoxRec - event".
  26. "Burns vs Indongo". matchroomboxing.com. Matchroom Boxing. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
Preceded byvs. Kiryl Relikh Ricky Burns's bouts
15 April 2017 		Succeeded byvs. Anthony Crolla
Preceded byvs. Eduard Troyanovsky Julius Indongo's bouts
15 April 2017 		Succeeded byvs. Terence Crawford
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