It was Burns night but the fare served up could have been Mexican.

At the end of a 12-round epic, Coatbridge's Ricky Burns retained his WBO Lightweight title on a raucous night in Glasgow. It was desperately tight though. In the end, his battle with Mexico's Raymundo Beltran was declared a draw after one judge sided with Burns, 115-112, another with Beltran, 115-113 and the third, Englishman, Richie Davies, scoring it even at 114-114. It was fortunate but it could have been worse. The braveheart Scot ploughed on having dislocated his jaw early on.

Burns bounced into the ring with a record of 36 wins and just two defeats, the last of them over six years ago. He launched an early assault after the initial ding ding and landed a few accurate body blows to stir the partisan hordes. The warning signs were there though and Beltran's late thrust just before the bell rocked the Scot back on to the ropes. He would spend a fair amount of time on them as proceedings unfolded and the defending champion struggled to come up with the answers to his rival's probing questions.

It was nip and tuck but Burns seemed unsure just how to deal with the experienced Mexican brawler. When Beltran landed a devastating left hook in the eighth round to send the Scot tumbling to the floor the gasps of despair were alarming. Burns recovered his composure but still looked dazed and confused.

Trudging through the throng and into the SECC, you would have been forgiven for thinking that some of the paying punters had done a few rounds in the ring themselves. As the droothy denizens queued for a libation, a number of the craggy, menacing faces in attendance possessed all the soft warmth of a poke of dented bells. The men were even more fearsome.

By the time the first couple of pints had been thundered down the thrapple there was cause to raise a glass to South Queensferry's Paul Appleby. The 26-year-old had made the journey east along the M8 for his undercard bout with Lee Connolly of Chesterfield. It turned out be the start of his road to recovery.

Appleby, who became Scotland's youngest British champion at the age of 20 when he thumped John Simpson in 2008, was felled by that same opponent in June last year and collapsed after the contest before being taken to hospital in the aftermath with a suspected head injury. It turned out to be exhaustion but the lingering effects of that defeat, allied to a period of soul searching, kept him out of the ring for the following 15 months.

He was back with a bang last night and, despite being a bit, well, ring rusty, the Scot eased his way to a morale-boosting triumph in the six round light welterweight joust and claimed his 19th win in 23 bouts.

The man from the east certainly showed promise but local lad Jon Slowey was determined to prove that Glasgow's miles better. The 22-year-old dominated from the first bell in his fisticuffs with Spanish fighter Angel Lorente for the International Featherweight Silver Championship and the judges sided unanimously with the Scot after a one-sided affair, 99-90, 97,93, 98-91.

It was not one of the most rip-roaring undercards and the spectacle was hardly helped by a fairly timid surrender by the Lithunian Kirill Psonko, who bowed out of his duel with Liverpool's Callum Smith after just two minutes and 30 seconds.

It was Edinburgh's Stephen Simmons who upped the ante as he emerged from a 10-round slugathon with the previously unbeaten German, David Graf, to take the WBC cruiserweight silver championship.

The 29-year-old, who has now racked up nine straight wins, had Graf on the ropes although the German did inflict a nasty cut on Simmons' left eye. The Scot emerged triumphant, however, from a bout that turned the shorts red with blood and the air blue with the boisterous bellowings ringside.