Ricky Burns stopped Australian Josh King in 10th round in Liverpool on Saturday night

Ricky Burns continued his rebuilding process in the lightweight division and added the WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title by stopping Josh King.

The former two-weight world champion was far from his best but still had too much experience to struggle against an awkward Australian and eventually finished him off in style.

King at times rode his luck with the referee but in the 11th round he ran out of chances as far as Burns was concerned, a cracking left-hook to the body - teed up with a crisp right upstairs - leaving him on all fours.

He might well have made the count but with Burns the only one of the two looking anything like the winner, never mind a world champion, he had done well enough to stay there for 10 rounds.

Burns though again seemed to struggle when he got close-in. That jab, then the right that following it in rolled back the years and outlined his class but as soon as King smothered him, Burns seemed unable to repeat his tricks.

In the fourth, the pair ended up on the floor almost wrestling and then the man from Down Under was docked a point for hitting after the break.

Even without that, he was never going to win and at least while he didn't look anywhere near his best, Burns' finish was as sharp as ever.

Tom Doran set up a shot at British middleweight champion Nick Blackwell with a cracking third-round stoppage victory over Rod Smith.

Doran produced a peach of a left to the body that gave Smith little chance of recovering and is now looking to see what happens when Blackwell makes his second defence against Jack Arnfield next weekend.

Jack Ball picked up his third professional win in just over two months and went beyond the opening round for the first time with Mehdi Lacombe making it to the second, only to be floored and then stopped soon after.

Ryan Mulcahy beat Ross Roberts with the first but not the only first-round knockout of the night, while super-lightweight prospect Ohara Davies overwhelemed Chris Truman in two.

A debutant was also off to a sharp professional start, with Warren Baister taking Attila Gyen apart.