Warrington v Dieli the Undercard

By Ryan Forde-Kelly - 10/04/2014 - Comments

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The Matchroom promoted Battle Lines, presented a stacked undercard, which contained Ricky Burns, Callum Smith and Brian Rose no less, not to mention an all British Commonwealth title fight at Light Welterweight.

Ricky Burns v Alexandre Lepelley

Ricky Burns began his campaign at Light Welterweight in good style, knocking down the Frenchman with a hard right hand, followed by a left hook to seal the deal. Unfortunately, that is as good as it got for the 2-time former World Champion.

Although Burns was winning the rounds, the distance between the fighters reduced as the fight went on, descending into a war of attrition, which was not the order of the day. The Scotsman continued to win the rounds, but he didn’t look great in doing so.

The likeable Burns was never able to replicate his early success and was force to tough it out over the 8 round distance, winning 79-71 on the referee’s scorecard. A difficult night, which prompted Tony Sims, Eddie Hearn and Ricky Burns himself to allude to a drop back down to lightweight next time out.

Burns improves 37-4-1 (11KO’s) and moves on, quite where that is to remains to be seen. I don’t think there is a boxing fan on the planet that doesn’t wish him all the success in the world.

Callum Smith v Rafael Sosa Pintos

Callum ‘Mundo’ Smith warmed up in typical style with a 3rd round TKO of the overmatched Uruguayan, following the delivery of 3 sickening body shots, which registered 3 individual knockdowns, for which he is becoming famed.

Smith now moves on to fight former Sakio Bika and Arthur Abraham victim Nicola Sjekloca 27-2 (8KO’s) in Liverpool 22nd November. He improves his record to 14-0 (11KO’s) and looks a World Champion in the making.

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Brian Rose v Ignacio Fraga

Brian Rose was just far, far too much for the poor Argentinian, who was knocked down heavy on 3 separate occasions in the first round, via the hard right hand of the Blackpool native. The last of which, the referee stepped in and waved off the contest, which was decided the moment the first punch landed.

This was a confidence-building victory for Brian Rose, who came up short last time out against the widely avoided and WBO Light Middleweight ruler Demetrius Andrade. Fraga is not of any sort of standard, but it was important Rose got back to winning ways, before mixing it with say, Liam Smith in the near future. He now moves on to 26-2-1 (8KO’s).

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Best of the Rest

Dave Ryan bt Tyrone Nurse MD12 (Full Report to Follow, such is the quality of this bout.)
Simon Vallily bt Jiri Svacina 5 PTS
Callum Johnson bt Luke Allon 3 TKO
Stephen Simmons bt Courtney Richards 6 PTS
David Brophy bt Vitalie Mirza 1 KO
Arfan Iqbal bt Martin Horak 4 PTS
Reece Cartwright bt Istvan Kiss 4 PTS

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