No contest as Celts skipper shows he is ring king with Joey forced to belt up

It was billed a heavyweight contest. The main event. Forget about Golovkin v Brook at the O2, Brown v Barton was the big one.

Barton gave it plenty of trash talk as the new pretender looking to waltz in to town and knock the local champ off his perch. Internet whizzkids even mocked up a Rocky montage scene with Brown and Barton giving it the Eye of the Tiger routine.

Everyone was waiting to see the fireworks as these two squared up, but it turned out to be a mismatch.

Barton joked earlier he was in a different league to Brown. It looked like they were on different pitches.

Barton’s not the first big star to be outshone on his Old Firm debut. Better players than him have been lost in the wash as Glasgow airs its dirty laundry. But not many had so much to say beforehand. All

eyes were on Brown and Barton but the pair were rarely in the same spot.

It took over half an hour for them to collide. It was like slow motion as the ball bounced in the midfield and the warriors leaped to meet it.

It happened again soon after and almost resulted in another Celts goal. Then there was the moment that summed up Barton and Rangers’ day.

A contested dropped ball. The big two toe to toe. Brown was first and strongest. The towel was thrown in.

But veteran fighter Brown, who made a gesture to Barton after one of Celtic’s goals, wasn’t the problem.

It was Celtic’s skippy who gave Joey grief rather than the skipper.

Tom Rogic was on Barton’s case from the off and never gave him a minute’s peace. The Aussie was constantly on the spin, at one point he left Barton in a heap after an Ali shuff le. Barton would have been thrilled to see him go off.

In fairness to the Gers man, he was doing the work of two, with Niko Kranjcar drenched in sweat despite rarely breaking out of a stroll.

It left Barton in an unfair fight with more than Brown facing him in the ring. Andy Halliday was a welcome hand in his corner, but in the end only one man was on the canvas.

The war of words was fun but it was Brown who was the ring king who did his talking on the pitch while Barton was forced to belt up.