By Scott Gilfoid: There will be a lot on the line for WBA “regular” light welterweight champion Ricky Burns this Friday night in his title defense against Kiryl Relikh (21-0, 19 KOs) at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. Burns wants to keep his WBA title 140lb title as long as he can.
It’s important that Burns wins so that he can meet up with Adrien “The Problem” Broner in a big payday fight in 2017. Broner wants the fight, and Burns’ promoter Eddie Hearn is chomping at the bit to try and make the fight happen between Burns and Broner.
This is Burns’ first defense of his WBA title after he beat Michele Di Rocco earlier this year by an 8th round knockout. Relikh is rated No.1 like Di Ricco was, but he appears to be a better fighter with more pop in his punches.
However, it’s still hard to believe that Relikh, 26, deserves to be rated at No.1 in the World Boxing Association’s rankings, because he’s beaten nobody of note since he turned pro. He’s just someone that is ranked high off the back of a weaker 3rd tier opposition. Still, Relikh has a chance in this fight because Burns hasn’t fought a quality opponent in a couple of years.
Burns has won his last three fights, but against weak opposition that arguably should have never been rated in the top 15 in the first place. Burns’ win over Di Rocco gave him his third division world title. Normally that would mean something, but Burns didn’t beat anyone good in winning world titles at super featherweight and lightweight.
This is a step up fight for Relikh, as he’s not been fighting world class opposition during his pro career. You’d like to have seen Relikh fight at least one top 15 or even top 25 contender before being given a title shot, but unfortunately the WBA was okay with his qualifications.
At least if Relikh had fought a contender, he could have been weeded out of proven himself worthy of fighting for a world title. It might be as much of a step up for Relikh as many boxing fans think, because Burns is arguably not a top five guy in my opinion. I mean, Burns is a champion at 140, but he didn’t beat a good fighter to become a champion and he hasn’t fought a quality opponent since his loss to Omar Figueroa two years ago.
Burns is probably the No.10 or 12 rated fighter in the 140lb division right now. If Relikh is at the same level, then he might be able to beat Burns. It still wouldn’t mean a lot thought, because Relikh wouldn’t have beaten the really good fighters in the division like Viktor Postol, Terence Crawford, John Molina Jr., or Adrien Broner.
As much as I like the punching power of Relikh in this fight, you’ve got to go with Burns to win by a decision. It’s very hard to beat Burns when he fights in Glasgow, as Raymundo Beltran found out. I don’t think it matters how well Relikh does in each round, if he doesn’t score knockdowns of Burns, then I don’t see him winning the fight.
Relikh is the visiting fighter and I don’t see the judges giving him the nod. I thought Beltran won a lopsided decision in his fight against Burns several years ago, but shockingly they scored it a draw. I see the see the same thing happening with Relikh if he doesn’t knock Burns down two or three times or better yet knock him out.