Boxing: Jospeh Laryea hands it to Ricky Burns

The loudmouth who came to Scotland to tear off Ricky Burns's head and cut his throat went back to Ghana a silent, beaten and broken man last night. Joseph Laryea retired hurt on his stool after seven rounds of the WBO super-featherweight title contest at Braehead Arena in Renfewshire.

The official reason was a broken small metacarpal bone in Laryea's right hand, but the suspicion was that he had just realised that Burns was about to pulverise him.

After this second successful defence of his world title, Burns said: "In the last couple of rounds you could see that he was looking out of the ring. He just didn't want to be there, and I think maybe hurting his hand was the excuse to get himself out of there."

Though not quite a sell-out, the Arena was still almost filled with Burns's growing legion of fans.

The tough-talking Laryea of the throat-cutting gestures entered the ring to a loud chorus of boos, jeers and catcalls. Burns, by contrast, was cheered to the echo.

Laryea scaled 9st 2lbs 4ozs at the weigh in, while Burns was more than a pound heavier at 9st 3lbs 7ozs, suggesting that Laryea had not quite timed his preparation to perfection.

Burns looks fitter and more muscular with every fight, but the tall and gangly Laryea was also rippling with muscle, and he certainly looked mean and determined with his gold El Hadji Diouf haircut.

Like the footballer, he was soon in trouble with the referee. Terry O'Connor had to warn Laryea for hitting after the break just 30 seconds into the fight, but Burns was wise to the challenger's awkwardness and jabbed his way to win the opener, a good solid left hook inside the last minute giving the Ghanaian plenty to think about.

The second round was all about Burns landing big shots to the head and especially the body, and though Laryea came back with a few of his own, they did not appear to trouble the Scot.

Burns had said beforehand that he would need to dominate the fight, but he could not control the centre of the ring as Laryea upped his work rate in round three. Burns went to the outside and was still the more accurate puncher.

Laryea caught Burns with a wild one at the start of the fourth and, perhaps stung, the champion moved into classical boxing mode, jabbing and throwing body punches that landed on the target area almost every time, hence another round to the Coatbridge man.

The challenger had wasted energy with repeated loose shots, and by the end of the fifth round he was blowing heavily and sweating profusely, while Burns looked much fresher and could chalk up another round to himself thanks simply to better punching.A left hook to Laryea's face followed by a right to the side of the head saw the first distress signals from the African, and referee O'Connor administered a severe warning to Laryea for holding. The challenger caught Burns with an uppercut, but it was still the champion's round.

Burns started the seventh with a concerted attack, and Laryea's main tactic seemed to be to lead with the head. A swinging left hook had the challenger reeling, and as Burns turned it on, Laryea looked to his cornermen for some idea of how to escape the Scot's attacks.

The champion piled in with stunning accuracy, and in a trice, Laryea looked a beaten man, again looking to his corner as if to indicate there was something seriously wrong.

No answer came from his cornermen, and after the bell, Laryea suddenly erupted at his handlers. In one of the most bizarre demonstrations ever seen in a Scottish world title fight, Laryea bounced up and down on his stool, clearly at odds with his cornermen and wanting nothing more to do with the contest. His advisers could do nothing but agree.

Many great boxers have fought on with damaged bones - Muhammad Ali famously fought Ken Norton with a broken jaw for ten rounds - but Laryea is clearly not in that class of courage.

Make no mistake, Laryea gave Burns something of a contest, but from the fifth onward, there was only ever going to be one outcome.

Burns said: "I was really happy with that. The first rounds were a bit awkward because he had a long reach advantage.

"Now I'd like to fight (South African] Mnozke Fana for the Ring magazine world belt, the one we call the Rocky belt."

In the bout after the main event, Scotland's 2010 Commonwealth Games light-heavyweight gold medallist Callum Johnson made it two out of two in the paid ranks, winning all four rounds against Jody Meikle of Scunthorpe.

Johnson should reappear on the undercard of Burns's next fight, hopefully against IBF champion Fana. Ricky going for the Rocky title against the number one contender - now that would be a fight.