By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn plans on having the struggling former two division world champion Ricky Burns (36-4-1, 11 KO’s) to move up to 140 to campaign as a light welterweight. Hearn feels that the 31-year-old Burns has been at lightweight too long, and that he might be better off fighting at a higher weight.
What Hearn doesn’t say is that he’s hoping that by moving Burns up to 140, he’ll solve the problems that he’s had recently in the ring. Burns has lost his last two fights to Terence Crawford and a little known fighter named Dejan Zlaticanin. And before those defeats, Burns was given a controversial gift draw against Raymundo Beltran last year in September. So we’re basically looking at three straight defeats for Burns and an almost defeat at the hands of Jose Gonzalez before that.
Hearn wants to get one tune-up fight at 140 for Burns, and then provided that he wins that fight and looks good, he’ll then match him against 36-year-old former WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison (27-3-2, 15 KO’s) in Scotland.
“He’s been a long time at lightweight and it becomes a struggle as you get older,” Hearn said to the Dailyrecord.co.uk. “He’ll have a 10-rounder at light-welter in Manchester. It won’t be an easy fight but a step in the right direction. All going well then it will be a big domestic fight – and they don’t come much bigger than Scott Harrison. It’s a fight that’s been talked about for a long time in Scotland. That is the biggest Scottish fight out there but there are plenty of options for both men.”
I can’t help thinking that Hearn is putting Burns in a cash out. The interest in the Burns-Harrison fight will be big in Scotland, and it’s a fight that should have been made many years ago instead of waiting until this point in Burns’ career. But if Harrison whips Burns too, then I can’t see what else Hearn can do with Burns other than feeding him to the likes of Derry Mathews, Anthony Crolla and Kevin Mitchell. If Burns can’t beat Mitchell, who he destroyed in 2012, then you know something is wrong with him.
I think it’s a bad idea for Burns to be moving up to 140, because if he’s falling apart and getting knocked down by the punchers at 135, what do you thinks going to happen when Burns gets in the ring with the likes of Ruslan Provodnikov, Lucas Matthysse, Adrien Broner and Thomas Dulorme at 140?
Speaking of Broner, this might be a good time for Hearn to have him fight Broner. They didn’t jump at the chance of fighting Broner when he was trying to get the fight with Burns in 2013. In hindsight, they should have made that fight because it would have easily have been Burns’ biggest payday of his career had he taken it.
Hearn might want to try and make that fight rather than wasting time setting up a Burns-Harrison fight, because that fight just seems wrong. I mean, if I was in Burns position, I wouldn’t like the idea of my promoter putting me in with an older fighter who hadn’t fought in over a year and who’d lost last fight. At least if Burns beat Broner, he could get gain a lot of attention in the boxing world. If Burns beats Harrison, I don’t see him getting that same attention.
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