Ricky Burns plans on boxing Beltran

By Boxing News - 07/30/2013 - Comments

burns433By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2, 11 KO’s) survived a scare last May in stopping the taller, faster, stronger and more athletic Jose Gonzalez in the 9th round after the Puerto Rican ran out of gas and suffered a hand injury. Burns now plans on focusing more on his boxing skills for his next title defense against Raymundo Beltran (28-6, 17 KO’s) on September 7th at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Burns said to Sky Sports “I’ll get involved in a brawl in this fight if and when I need to but I’m going to rely on my boxing a bit more. Preparation has been going great and I can’t wait to get in there. We’re expecting a tough fight…I’m first to say I wasn’t myself that night [against Jose Gonzalez] and I’ll show what I’m capable in my next fight.”

I don’t think Burns has seen Beltran fight before because if he honestly thinks he’s going to be able to beat Beltran by boxing him, he’s going to be sadly mistaken. You can’t beat Beltran by boxing, because he cuts off the ring and forces you to fight him in close in an inside war.

It doesn’t matter if Burns runs and holds like he did in his controversial win over Michael Katsidis; he’s going to have to brawl with Beltran in every round of the fight if he wants to win it. Or should I say, if Burns wants to win it without controversy.

I realize the fight is in Burns’ home country, and that probably means Beltran is going to have to do something really spectacular to ensure that he can get a decision, but it doesn’t matter. If Burns wins a controversial decision, he won’t get credit for the win by hardcore boxing fans. The fans will ignore the decision and crown Beltran as the legit WBO lightweight champion.

Okay, so Burns is going to have to slug it out with Beltran whether he likes it or not. The quicker Burns comes to terms with that face ahead of time the better off he’ll be on September 7th.

If he goes into this fight praying and hoping he can box Beltran, he’s going to be in total shock when he finds Beltran right in front of him round after round, refusing to go away and nailing him with huge shots. I hope for Burns’ sake he works on his nonexistent power because he’s going to need some power in order to go toe-to-toe with Beltran for 12 rounds.

As far as Burns saying he wasn’t himself in his last fight against Jose Gonzalez, I have to disagree. Burns was himself. That fight showed Burns’ limitations as a fighter. It must have been a shock for him to be getting dominated after all the soft opposition he’s faced, but that’s just the way it is.

It wasn’t because Burns was having an off night. It was because Burns was finally fighting someone with a pulse after all these years instead of the usual fodder. We would have saw much, much worse from Burns if he’d have only agreed to fight Adrien Broner in the past, but he keeps turning that fight down to fight other guys.



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