By Scott Gilfoid: Former two division world champion Ricky Burns (36-3-1, 11 KO’s) says he’ll now be trained by Tony Sims, as he’s moving on from his long-time trainer Billy Nelson. Burns also says he’d like a rematch against Terence Crawford, who beat him by a 12 round unanimous decision last month in a one-sided fight in Glasgow, Scotland.

Burns says he’d be willing to travel to the U.S to fight Crawford.

“I’d love to get a rematch against Crawford,” Burns said to Sky Sports. “I’d be more than happy to go to America, if that’s what he wanted.”

Crawford isn’t even thinking about Burns right now. He’s going to defend his title against Ray Beltran and focus on facing the best guys in the division. Burns had his chance and lost. Crawford won’t waste time fighting him again.

It’s nice that Burns is now being trained by Sims, but I don’t see that as changing anything in terms of his ability to compete with someone as talented as Crawford. I would venture to guess that Burns would have been whipped just the same by Crawford even if Sims was the one in Burns’ corner last month. Unless Sims could have gotten in the ring at the same time as Burns to help him out on that night, I don’t think it would have mattered one bit.

Having Sims might make Burns feel better, but he’s still likely to have major problems if he faces the top lightweights in the division in Crawford, Miguel Vazquez and Richard Abril. Burns’ promoter Eddie Hearn is looking to get him a title shot against WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa. That’s going to be tough doing that though because Burns isn’t ranked in the top 15 by the WBC at lightweight. It could take him a couple of years for Burns to get a title shot against Figueroa, and by then he’d be up there in age at 33.

“We’re looking at the end of June back in Glasgow, possibly going down the WBC route…It was annoying me that people were saying ‘he is past his best, and he’s not really looked good these last couple of fights,’ but I think the change of trainer…is going to be for the good.”

I don’t know that a different trainer will make that much of a difference to be honest. Burns was always going to have problems against the likes of Jose Gonzalez, Raymundo Beltran and Crawford.

The reason why Burns struggled against them wasn’t because he didn’t have Sims training him, it was because Burns was facing more talented opponents. If Hearn wanted to put that theory to a test, he’d match Burns back up with Crawford, Gonzalez and Beltran so that Burns could show how much better he is with Simms training him.

I think Burns would get dominated by all three of them again. He might be able to beat Gonzalez if he runs out of gas again, but he’s not going to beat Beltran and Crawford. Sims can give the best advice in the entire world, and Burns will still likely get beat. It’s a talent thing, not a training thing for Burns.