Ricky Burns wants Flanagan-Mathews winner

By Boxing News - 01/14/2016 - Comments

burns200By Scott Gilfoid: Riding a little 2-fight winning streak, 32-year-old former two division world champion Ricky “Rickster” Burns (39-5-1, 13 KOs) is hoping to get a fight against the winner of next month’s February 13 clash between unbeaten WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (29-0, 12 KOs) and Derry Mathews (38-9-2, 20 KOs) in their fight at the O2 Arena in Liverpool, UK.

Unfortunately for Burns, he might have to fight a WBO eliminator to get the fight against the Flanagan-Mathews winner. In that case, Burns would have to beat either #1 WBO Jose Zepeda or #2 WBO Petr Petrov.

Burns is ranked #3 by the WBO, and I have no clue why the World Boxing Organization would let Burns jump ahead of one of those two higher ranked contenders to fight in an eliminator bout.

It would make more sense for the Flanagan vs. Mathews winner just to give Burns the title shot straightaway rather than waiting for him to eventually fight in an eliminator and possibly get whipped once again. It wouldn’t trust having Burns in an eliminator against anyone decent because he’s vulnerable and too likely to lose.

To be sure, Burns has won his last two fights, but he’s done it against terribly weak opposition in beating someone named Prince Ofotsu and Josh King. Before those fights, Burns had been losing left and right to the likes of Omar Figueroa, Dejan Zlaticanin, Terry Flanagan and Raymundo Beltran. Yeah, I know the Burns-Beltran fight was scored as a draw in Glasgow, Scotland, but Burns completely lost the fight to Beltran in my view.

“We’re just waiting for confirmation about my next fight,” Burns said to skysports.com. “If I win my possible fight, I will be made mandatory and I’m sure the purse bids will be fun and games. As long as I get in a big fight, I’ve got all the motivation I need.

Burns vs. Mathews would be a winnable fight for Burns. It would be a very, very tough fight for Burns, but he might win. Mathews has a lot of mileage on him at 32 and is definitely beatable. But there’s no way do I see Burns beating a guy like Flanagan. That would be a massacre loss for Burns. Even if Burns chose to clinch 24/7 like he did in his fights against Crawford, Beltran and Figueroa, I still see Flanagan scoring a knockout.

The referee would have to be on his J-O-B for the Burns vs. Flanagan fight, because if he wasn’t, Burns would likely stink up the joint with his nonstop clinching all night. I mean, I could see Burns getting disqualified by the referee for excessive clinching if the referee was doing his job correctly by calling Burns for clinching over 10 times per round.

It would be so ugly to watch though. Flanagan would need to train specifically in how to deal with all night clinching for him to be able to figure out how to throw punches while having the octopus like Burns all over him holding and grabbing.

“I know the WBO have put me at number 3 again so I think we’re chasing a final eliminator,” Burns said. Obviously Terry Flanagan is fighting Derry Mathews. Nothing’s been confirmed yet and as long as I’m getting my name back out there, that’s all that matters.”

What I don’t understand is why in the heck did the WBO make Burns No.3 in their rankings off of wins over Josh King and Prince Ofotsu? Why didn’t Burns have to beat better fighters than those guys for him to be ranked so highly at No.3? What’s interesting is that the WBO now has Burns ranked above #6 WBO Felix Verdejo. If you’ve seen Verdejo fight, you’ll understand why I don’t understand how an old light puncher like Burns could be ranked above him. Verdejo has one-punch knockout power and nice hand speed. I couldn’t see Burns lasting more than six rounds against a talent like Verdejo.



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