By Scott Gilfoid: WBO interim lightweight champion Ricky Burns (33-2, 9 KO’s) will be defending his title for the first time against ex-WBA lightweight champion Paulus Moses (28-1, 19 KO’s) on March 10th in what could be a serious make or break fight for the 28-year-old Burns fighting at the Braehead Arena in Glascow, Scotland.

Burns’ people have obviously researched the heck out of the 33-year-old Moses and likely figure he’s deteriorated enough for Burns to take him. But I think Burns is in for a big surprise in this fight when he gets flatted by the hard hitting Moses. I’ve seen a number of Moses’ fights and this guy has got huge power in his left hand and he’s real sneaky in throwing it. He doesn’t load up all the time with it, but instead saves it for special occasions and then unloads.

Moses said “Make no mistake, I’m coming to Scotland to win the world title by knockout. I’ve beaten better fighters than Burns before. I know I can beat him easily.”

I happen to agree completely with what Moses says about him having beaten better fighters than Burns. Moses’ win over Takehiro Shimada was a perfect example of Moses beating an excellent fighter a league above Burns in talent. So what if it was three years ago, Moses is still pretty much the same fighter he was back then. He’s got the basic tools – powerful left hand, crushing jab, monstrous right hand – still with him and largely intact.

Burns, 5’10”, will have a slight height advantage over the 5’8 1/2″ Moses but it will be completely negated by the two inch reach advantage that Moses will have in this fight. This is one of the rare fights where Burns is fighting someone nearly as tall as him. Burns is usually matched against guys that he’s got a three to five inch height advantage over. This is going to be fun to see Burns having to deal with someone that is looking at him eye to eye. I think it’s going to be really difficult for him because Moses has a much better jab than him. It’s not even close. Moses will be able to dominate with his jab alone.