A Burns supper in a Chinese restaurant by Tom Walker Oct 27th 2007

No haggis for this Burns Supper, it was the range of Cantonese dishes from the Seewoo Restaurant in Glasgow. The "Burns" aspect was Coatbridge super featherweight Ricky Burns and the "Supper" side was the time that the guests were eating. 470 guests packed the cavernous arena that is the Seewoo on this Katherine & Alex Morrison promotion last night. M.C. Mike Goodall got the proceedings under way somewhat later than had been intended as the staff frantically tried to stave off the hunger pangs of the guests. The restaurant itself is a good venue with plenty of height and space (were it not so full!). The show opened with Ciaran Duffy 11st 2lb formerly of Donegal, and now out of Glasgow, matched with Martin Sweeney 10st 9lb from Darwin in England and referee Kenny Pringle in charge of the action. The opening round dispensed with formalities and both boxers went to work in a business like fashion with eye catching combinations from both boys. Duffy probably shaded this one as he was doing more work than Sweeney. However, Sweeney caught Duffy with a stiff straight left in the second which left Duffy's nose marked on the bridge as the bout started to sparkle with both trading heavy handed shots, much to the delight of the crowd. The third saw an accidental clash of heads which started the flow of blood again from Duffy's nose, and even from ringside it didn't look too good, the nose that is! Sweeney's right is hardly missing the target in this all action clash and he (Sweeney) finishes off the round with a sweet right hand which rattled Duffy. The opening of the fourth has Sweeney straight on the offensive and despite the big showing of local support for Duffy, their man is put to the canvas with another right allied to a bit of a shove. Kenny Pringle sent Sweeney to the neutral corner but instead of issuing the standing count took Duffy back to his corner whereupon it was called off at 1 min 34 sec of the fourth. Duffy's nose looked badly broken even from where I was seated and it was right to stop it. Sweeney and his corner were jubilant as it stopped his previous run of losses. This was a cracker of a bout which swung both ways before the untimely end, and both boxers earned their pay packets with their efforts. Paddy Pollock 11st 1lb of Larkhall was scheduled to meet Jay Morris of Newport over 6 x 2 min, however, he ended up boxing Mark Betts 10st 4lb, also of Larkhall. Betts had only come to watch the bouts, but stepped into the breach at the last minute to help save the day. Where would we be without such guys? Both boxers are very upright with counterpunching being the main weapon and as a result this bout had long range boxing without the excitement of the opener, and had draw written all over it from the first bell, and so it proved to be with referee Paul Graham scoring it 57 – 57, which was a pretty fair result. Gary McMillan 10st 7.5lb of Edinburgh came in against Craig Tombs 10st 11lb of Barnsley in the third bout on the card. McMillan (who was my team captain in the 4 nations in Wales) has had an innocuous start to his professional career, but the transformation in his performance last night was very noticeable. He was fast, accurate and never gave Tombs any time to settle! McMillan's southpaw stance allied to the power and range of shots he's got, wobbled Tombs in the second with a delightful left hook. This was vintage McMillan (which has been lacking of late), and a crashing right followed by a barrage of shots had the Yorkshire boxer hanging on for dear life. Tombs corner were imploring him to cover up and hold, but the movement and speed of McMillan was too much for the very game Tombs. He did however; see it through to the end when lesser men would have crumpled. Kenny Pringle was spot on with his 60 – 54 scoring of the bout. The "Burns" night came after the auction handled by Mike Goodall with ringside tickets for Alex Arthur's next outing in Edinburgh and hospitality plus match tickets for Scotland and Italy raising considerable bids. Ricky Burns 9st 7.5lb was scheduled to meet Harry Ramagoadi, but in the end it was ever durable Ben Odamattey 9st 8lb from Ghana who gave him this test prior to his bout next weekend in Wales. This teak tough Ghanaian has some losses on his slate but they've all been against quality opposition, Hunter, Murray, Gomez, McAllister, Greaves and Truscott! Out of these, only Michael Gomez and John Murray have achieved that by the short route. Defensively Odamattey is very well schooled and soaks up the early attacks of Burns which are mainly of the hooking variety. Odamattey himself opens up his offensive capability in the second round, but doesn't seem to trouble the Coatbridge man; though referee Paul Graham lets him (Burns) know that he's not immune to criticism from slapping with the open part of the glove. By the third round Burns' jabs are piercing the guard of Odamattey, so quick are they. Odamattey's hooks are narrowly missing Burns which is just as well as they have weight behind them. The midpoint of the bout went a bit quiet as both men tried to unpick the opponents locks, with Burns only working in flurries through five and six. This bout will have been just what Burns needed, a stiff work out with a durable opponent and eight rounds in preparation for his exertions next weekend. There's no doubt that he deserved his 80 points from Paul Graham, but I'd have given Odamattey a share of two of them in the middle of the bout. Nonetheless, the score of 80 – 73 to Burns was the way it went. Leaving Glasgow for a three and a half hour drive back with only the voice of the satellite navigation for company, and in foggy conditions that Arthur Conan Doyle could have written about for the "Hounds of the Baskervilles" wasn't what I'd hoped for, but the evening was indeed what I expected, good boxing and company to match.

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