WBA gives Ricky Burns 30 days to negotiate with Relikh Kiryl

By Boxing News - 06/30/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: The World Boxing Association has reportedly given newly crowned WBA World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns (40-5-1, 14 KOs( 30 days to negotiate with his unbeaten and highly talented #1 WBA mandatory challenger Relikh Kiryl (21-0, 19 KOs) for a title defense. It’ll go to a purse bid of Burns and Kiryl’s management are unable to reach a deal to arrange a fight between them.

This is obviously bad luck for Burns to have a guy as dangerous as the 26-year-old Kiryl as his mandatory challenger for his first defense. Burns recently captured the vacant WBA 140lb title last May in stopping Michele Di Rocco in the 8th round in Glasgow, Scotland.

It was an ideal situation for Burns, as Di Rocco didn’t have much punching power, experience or talent. It was the perfect situation for Burns, and he took full advantage of it by knocking Di Rocco down twice in the fight to get a stoppage in.

The 26-year-old Kiryl comes from Belarus, and he’s not really faced anyone good as of yet. However, you can tell how talented Kiryl is by looking at the way he’s performed against the mediocre opposition he’s been in with. Kiryl has recent knockout wins over Joaquim Cameiro, Christian Ariel Lopez, Lazaro Santos de Jeus, Sartos Medrano, Georgi Abramishvili and Ty Gilchrist. Kiryl has been knocking out everybody he’s faced in the last four years of his career.

The last fighter that was able to go the distance with him was Yauheni Kruhlik in September 2012. Kiryl kind of reminds me of middleweight Gennady Golovkin in some ways with the way he disguises his punching power. Kiryl will throw with moderate power for a while, and then all of a sudden he’ll load up with everything he’s got and nail his opponents with some big shots. Kirkyl has a great left to the body he likes to throw with devastating results, and his right hand is superb.

I can see the taller 5’10” doing well initially with Kiryl in the first round or two, but as soon as the Belarusian fighter starts to load up with his shots, I can’t see Burns lasting long. Kiryl’s knockout percentage is 90. Most of his knockouts come in the first three rounds. Once Kiryl starts to unload, his opponents tend to crumble shortly thereafter. Kiryl’s last opponent, Brazilian Joaquim Carneiro, was stopped in the 4th round. His corner decided he’d had enough so they stopped the fight.

Burns’ career looked to be virtually over after he was beaten by Terence Crawford, Dejan Zlaticanin and Omar Figueroa. However, Burns has won his last three fights, albeit against weak opposition, and now he’s the WBA champion. I don’t think Burns has improved at all. I just think he’s facing weaker opposition than the guys that he was getting whipped by.