Burns turns back the clock to stop Cardle
Burns last night rolled back the years to stop Joe Cardle in the third round of a contest scheduled for 10 on the undercard of the Tony Bellew-oleksandr Usyk world title fight at the Manchester Arena.
The 35-year-old from Coatbridge managed to put the disappointment of having a fight in Las Vegas next weekend cancelled and took this fight at short notice, but used it as an opportunity to show that he deserves another shot at one of the major belts.
A former world champion at super-featherweight, lightweight and light-welterweight, Burns turned on the style from the first bell of this lightweight contest.
Cardle, who lost his British title to Lewis Ritson in March, was badly outclassed here and might want to think about hanging up his gloves.
Burns, though, can expect the chance to appear on the global stage again in 2019 – 18 years after he turned pro. Cardle was still at primary school when Burns made his debut in the paid ranks and he learned some painful lessons last night. Promoter Eddie Hearn claimed afterwards that the Scot has proved he deserves another crack at the elite level and Ricky was pleased by his performance.
“I don’t feel any different to when I first laced up these gloves,” claimed the veteran.
“I felt good tonight. I jumped at the chance to appear on this show because I’m always ready, always just waiting for the call. “Now I’m hoping there are some big fights out there for me.
“I was getting my shots off well but the win is all that matters in my eyes.
“There are some big names out there and some have been calling me out on social media but I ignore that stuff – I’ll leave that to Eddie and my manager, Alex Morrison.”
Burns started brightly, using his height and reach to spear jabs into the face of Cardle, whose face reddened before the end of the first round. The bigger, stronger man, he was able to force Cardle on to the ropes in the second round and he staggered his opponent with a right to the head.
Based in Lytham St Annes, this was practically a hometown fight for the 29-year-old but he walked right into another powerful right from Burns early in the third and the older man used all of his experience to cut off the ring.
Cardle was bleeding from a cut above his left eye and could not defend himself against the overhand rights Burns was using with such success. It was another of those, to the side of the head, which sent the former Commonwealth Games gold medallist crashing to the canvas.
He tried manfully to continue but the referee stopped the fight at 2.06 to save the stricken fighter from more punishment.