By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO’s) is really disappointed that the World Boxing Organization won’t let him fight a rematch against Raymundo Beltran (28-6-1, 17 KO’s) straightaway in his next fight rather than having to fight #1 WBO Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) first, as Burns feels that he has unfinished business with Beltran that he’d like to take care of first before he moves on to a title defense against his mandatory challenger Crawford. Unfortunately for Burns, the WBO ordered that he fight Crawford next so there’s no getting around it and all the wishful thinking that he has is a waste of time.
Burns said to Sky Sports “If he [Beltran] couldn’t get the job finished with a guy with a broken jaw, what would a rematch be like? That’s how I’m looking at it, hopefully end of February, start of March, they’re looking at dates, I want to defend my title. Everyone had been saying that Beltran is a big puncher and he’s done this and that, I’ve been hit with a lot bigger punches.”
I think Burns is starting to sound a little deluded about the facts of his fight with Beltran. He was getting nailed left and right by Beltran with big shots, and he literally couldn’t stand in the pocket against the guy without getting hit with something big that would send him scurrying off. There was no actual fighting from Burns. He was basically either clinching or running, and it was that way from round one. Burns couldn’t stay in there with Beltran because he had no defense for his powerful left hook.
The unfortunate thing about Burns having to fight Crawford first is that Burns is going to lose that fight, and likely get totally clowned in an embarrassing fashion. Crawford is so good that the fight can be staged anywhere in the world and there’s no way that the judges won’t be able to give him the win because his skills are vastly superior to Burns that it’s just going to look like a one-way slaughter in this fight.
The bad part about it is that there won’t be any point in Burns fighting Beltran in his next fight after that because he won’t have the WBO lightweight title in his possession, and there won’t be any real reason for the fight to take place at that point other than just for the heck of it. I’m not sure Beltran will still be interested in fighting Burns if he’s not going to have a chance to fight for the title, because he already feels that he totally dominated him and got ripped off in Glasgow, Scotland, Burns’ home city last September.
I’m not sure what Burns can do after he loses to Crawford in March. As far as I’m concerned, the best thing that Burns can do is vacate the WBO title to avoid the one-sided loss to Crawford. Burns can then challenge IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez for his title. I think Burns has a slightly better chance at beating him than he does against Crawford, which I feel he has no chance of beating. I think it’s better that Burns at least have a chance, such as it is, to win against Vazquez rather than face Crawford and get obliterated.
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