Pre-tournament favourite Ryan Brawley overcame a cut to his left eye to claim the first lightweight Prizefighter crown on Tuesday night.
Home hero Brawley claims crown against Burke in Glasgow
Pre-tournament favourite Ryan Brawley overcame a cut to his left eye to claim the first lightweight Prizefighter crown on Tuesday night.
The undefeated, rangy, southpaw from Irvine, Scotland, walked away from the sixth edition of the event with the £25,000 jackpot following a victory over Liverpool's Stephen Burke in the final.
Brawley showed his class by outboxing the 30-year-old, who seemed more intent on trying to force his opponent out through injury as he had successfully done in his semi-final bout with the unlucky Gary McAthur, rather than go out to box the rounds.
Quality eventually won out, though, with a first round knockdown seeing two judges score Brawley the win by three rounds and the other by one round.
"It's brilliant," the 23-year-old told
Sky Sports 1 afterwards. "I was expecting him to come in rough and try to open the cut a bit more but it didn't work.
"This is the first time I've ever been cut, but thanks to cutman Benny King I've got through it."
Qualifying
Brawley opened the night at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, with a scrappy win over the diminutive, bull-like Ben Murphy and he then advanced past Sunderland's Paul Holborn in the semis.
Holborn had earlier inflicted Scottish champion Charlie King's first defeat in 15 in the quarter-finals, but it was Clyde Bank scrapper McArthur that produced the most impressive performance of the night on his return to action for the first time in 14 months.
The 26-year-old showed no signs of ring rust in his consummate triumph over powerful Wolverhampton bomber Steve Saville.
But a nasty cut from a head clash in the third round endangered McArthur's semi-final hopes and, he lasted just one round of the last four encounter with Burke roughing him up.
Burke drew stinging criticism from the passionate crowd for rubbing his glove into McArthur's face to open up the cut above his left eye and the unfortunate Scot was then stopped after a second head clash caused another deep gash on his forehead.
The ringside doctor had no choice but to call a halt to proceedings just two minutes and 25 seconds into the first round and so Burke it was who moved into the final.
