burns5 By Scott Gilfoid: #7 WBA Ricky Burns (39-5-1, 13 KOs) has been given he perfect opponent for his title fight on May 21st against #1 WBA Michele Di Rocco (40-1-1, 18 KOs) at the SSE Hydro, in Glasgow, Scotland. The 33-year-old Di Rocco and 32-year-old Burns will be fighting for the vacant WBA World light welterweight title that was previously held by Adrien Broner, who was elected to the WBA’s Super light welterweight title recently for some reason.

It’s unclear why the WBA would elevate Broner to a “super” status after he just won the WBA title last October against Khabib Allakhverdiev. It obviously helps the WBA for them to have more than one champion at 140.

I don’t think it helps the fans of the sport because it’s confusing, and it also further waters down each division by having multiple champions.

Burns was seen as a shot fighter not too long ago by many boxing fans after he suffered a string of losses in a short time span. Thanks to careful match-making, Burns has turned things around against arguably lesser quality opponents. Burns feels that he’s fixed the problems that he had with his game. You can argue that nothing has been fixed.

The only thing that has changed is that Burns is facing weaker opposition and still getting pushed upwards by the World Boxing Association. Burns is quite lucky that he’s fighting Di Rocco for the WBA 140lb title on May 21 rather than the higher ranked #2 WBA Mauricio Herrera, #3 Ruslan Provodnikov, #5 Adrian Granados, and #6 WBA Omar Figueroa Jr.

I have no idea why the WBA is allowing Burns at #7 WBA to be fighting for their WBA title rather than one of the higher ranked contenders. It’s just very bizarre and more than a little off putting. I guess the WBA has their reasons. I can’t say whether these higher ranked contenders are happy at seeing Burns leap frog over them for a world title fight against a less than dangerous opponent in Di Rocco.

“It is going to be great, I just can’t wait,” said Burns to skysports.com about his match against the little known Di Rocco. “Although we did have some problems, I have been trying to put it all behind me now. All goes well, we go out here and get the win, and then there are so many options out there for me again. We know it is going to be a hard night’s work. Technically he is a very good boxer and he can punch a bit as well.”

Burns says he’s put his problems behind him. I don’t know that you can say that. Burns lost to Terence Crawford, Dejan Zlaticanin and Figueroa. Burns also had a controversial 12 round draw against Raymundo Beltran in 2013 in a fight that Burns appeared to lose in the minds of a lot of boxing fans. The fight took place in Burns’ home city of Glasgow, Scotland.

I don’t think for a second that Burns could beat any of those fighters if he fought them a second time, do you? As such, I really don’t think Burns has put any of his problems “behind him” as he says. The only way you can say that Burns’ problems are now behind him is with the fact that he’s no longer fighting those high quality fighters, and he’s facing an arguably weaker fighter in Di Rocco on May 21. I guess you can say that Burns’ problems are behind him, but you can’t say that Burns has improved. How can he improve? He looks the same, but definitely older. The only thing that’s changed is he’s being put in with what appears to be a much lesser fighter in Di Rocco.

“He’s undefeated in eight years as well, so we know it’s going to be a hard fight. But there is a third world title at stake and that’s all the motivation I need. I’m going out and I’m going for it,” said Burns about Di Rocco.

Di Rocco was beaten in 2007 by Giuseppe Lauri (55-18). Di Rocco later avenged the defeat by beating Lauri in a rematch. Di Rocco hasn’t lost since 2007. However, he hasn’t fought any contenders at 140, ever. Di Rocco has been fighting 2nd and 3rd tier opposition largely, and obviously doing well against that type of opposition. You can argue that Di Rocco’s toughest opponent to date is Lauri or Alexandre Lepelley. Those are not high quality fighters.