Weights: Burns 134.25, Crawford 134.5

By Boxing News - 02/28/2014 - Comments

burns666By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO’s) made weight today for his title defense on Saturday night against the highly talented American Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) in Glasgow, Scotland. Burns weighed in at 134.25 lbs, and he looked in good shape as always. Burns’ recent problems in the ring have nothing to do with his conditioning, and more to do in terms of him suffering an injury against the big punching Raymundo Beltran.

Crawford weighed in at 134.5 lbs, and he looks to be in even better shape than Burns. Crawford’s midsection looked like it was carved out of a block of marble. He obviously worked hard during training camp.

When the two fighters stood face to face during the stare down, Crawford made a couple of comments that seemed to irritate Burns, because he almost immediately turned his head after hearing them. Burns didn’t try and jaw back at Crawford like you would think a fighter should. All I could think is that maybe Crawford got into his head with his comments.

Tomorrow night we could be seeing the beginning of a what could be a huge career for Crawford, as he has the talent to be another Floyd Mayweather Jr. type of fighter. Crawford has the talent to stick around for a long, long time in the boxing world. I see this as Crawford’s Lou Gehrig moment where he takes over for Wally Pipp and goes onto accomplish huge things in the sport. In other words, we’re about to see the passing of the baton on Saturday night with Burns giving up his WBO title to a guy that is likely going to accomplish great things.

There’s no shame in Burns losing to a talent like Crawford, because there really isn’t anyone in the lightweight division that can compete with this guy. But Burns will have an opportunity to recapture the WBO title at a later point in time, because Crawford is likely going to move up to the light welterweight division soon so that he can start looking for bigger and better fights.

Crawford has the kind of talent to move up to the welterweight division in the near future and compete with talented fighters like Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. That’s why he’s not going to stick around at 135 for too much longer. I’d be surprised if he makes more than 1-2 defenses before he moves up in weight. Burns will then be able to fight it out with Beltran for the vacant WBO title after Crawford is gone.

Saturday’s fight will be staged at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. I expect a lot of unhappy Burns fans in the audience on Saturday.



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