Burns vs di Rocco results: Ricky Burns wins third world title by TKO

Ricky Burns' fight with Michele di Rocco was titled "History in the Making," a nod to the fact that if Burns were successful, he would join an elite list of British-born fighters who won world titles in three weight classes, alongside Bob Fitzsimmons and Duke McKenzie.

So, yes, Burns did indeed make history today, at least very specific history, beating Italy's Michele di Rocco for the vacant WBA junior welterweight title, a dominant performance that saw the Scotsman stop di Rocco in the eighth round after a second knockdown.

di Rocco (40-2-1, 18 KO) was drastically out of his depth here, as the former European champion was well outclassed by a sharp-looking Burns. It calls into further question the legitimacy of this as a world title win, but technically, it is one, and boxing has no shortage of lame world title fights -- I mean, in a month, fans in the United Kingdom will be paying to see Dominic Breazeale get a world title shot -- so it's not like this stands out as particularly bad, which is probably more a statement on boxing than anything.

ANYWAY, though, take nothing else away from Burns (40-5-1, 14 KO), who simply did his job. (I know that after "taking away" the thing he accomplished with the win, this might ring a little hollow.) Burns looked good in this fight, looked like he can still go at 140, and could be in a lot of good fights. There are some interesting ranked contenders within the WBA -- Ruslan Provodnikov, Adrian Granados (a fight I'd love to see), a possible rematch with Omar Figueroa, Antonio Orozco, and more.