Dunn battles through adversity to outscore Bursak

 
ON the biggest stage of his professional career and before a live national audience on television, Zac Dunn delivered a stirring performance to lift the vacant IBO super middleweight title off a determined Max Bursak.

 
To the surprise of the adoring home crowd, Dunn, 24, was floored in the third round of their twelve-round title battle and had to survive several shaky moments in the opening half of the fight.

 
However, in a genuine moment of crisis, Dunn (now 18-0, 15 KOs) showed the maturity of an established veteran, taking the fight to a clearly underestimated Bursak (31-4-1, 14 KOs), who showed deceiving punching power.

 
In the first couple of rounds, it looked as if the undefeated Australian may have taken on too much of a sizable task, as the experienced and cagey Bursak took control and dictated the pace of the fight.

 
Dunn showed tremendous heart to close the perceived gap on the scorecards and fought intelligently from the outside the rest of the way, despite Bursak’s best efforts to turn the fight into a brawl.

 
After an enthralling final three rounds – including a possible contender of round of the year in the tenth – both fighters were greeted to a standing ovation as the verdicts were tallied.

 
All three judges favoured Dunn by scores of 116-110 and 115-111 twice.

 
“I feel awesome, it just feels amazing.” said Dunn in his post-fight interview with Aus-Boxing. “I now get to enjoy having the IBO world title around my waist. I now feel I can relax and definitely enjoy it.”

 
“He was tough – he threw everything at me – he wanted to win that fight. He hangs on and can throw his head around a bit. All in all he is a tough fighter,”

 
“I felt in the later rounds I started to box on the outside,” Dunn explained. “I was trying to fight his fight early, I was making hard work of it,”

 
“Then in the later rounds I started boxing at my distance and I felt really good.”

 
“It was just a quick flash,” Dunn added. “I was fighting his fight inside, I bounced straight back up. My head was clear and I was fine. The corner was pretty relaxed,”

 
“This opens up doors, I now hope to fight for other world titles. I really hope I can unify some – I just want the WBO world title now – that’s the one I want to go for. It’s gonna happen.”

 
“I’m still young, I’m 24. I have nothing but time on my side.”

 
 
Full Results

 
Zac Dunn UD12 Max Bursak
vacant IBO super middleweight title

 
Renold Quinlan TKO1 Ricardo Ramallo
vacant IBO International super middleweight title

 
Jayde Mitchell UD8 Mitchell Clark
vacant Victorian super middleweight title

 
Mike Jimenez TKO3 Francisco Ramon Martinez
Brian Matchett TKO1 Alex Don
Zac Swettenham UD3 Ben Nelson
Cameron Eyes TKO5 James Bertolami

 
 
Photo: Aus-Boxing