By Scott Gilfoid: It looks like World Boxing Organization super featherweight champion Ricky Burns (29-2, 7 KO’s) won’t be able to count on fighting the struggling lightweight Alex Arthur (28-3, 20 KO’s) in his 1st title defense of his WBO belt, because Arthur is saying that he can’t melt down to the super featherweight division to make the fight. It’s too bad, because Arthur had lost two out of his last four fights and would have likely been an easy fight for Burns.

In an article at heraldscotland.com, the 32-year-old Arthur said “There is just no way that I will ever fight at super featherweight again. When I fought Ricky back in 2006, I had to lose 10 pounds in the last two days previous to the fight. My calves turned blue and they were so stiff they were like iron, the cramping was terrible. I took a salt drink to try and combat the dehydration and it was the worst thing I could have done. It almost killed me.”

Well there it is. Arthur is out. Now maybe Burns will turn around and give Martinez a much needed rematch so that he can prove that he’s better than him twice, but without the crowd. The needs to take place in a neutral arena, where Burns’ home crowd won’t be such a factor. Martinez had Burns hurt a number of times in the fight but was unable to put him away. Late in the fight, Martinez ran out of gas and ended up losing a still close 12 round decision. Burns defeated Martinez, the WBO super featherweight champion last weekend, by the scores of 115-112, 115-112 and 115-113. I had it scored 115-113. It was a very close fight. Burns fought his heart out and got the most out of his ability, whereas Martinez’s power was what kept him in the fight until he ran out of gas in the 11th and 12th rounds.

He said afterwards that he had problems making weight before the fight, which would explain his off performance. If Burns doesn’t want to fight Martinez again, which I don’t blame him if he doesn’t, then it would be nice if Burns fought someone like Jorge Linares, Jorge Solis, or Roberto Guerrero. Those would be excellent opponents for Burns to fight in his first title defense. I seriously doubt he’ll face them, though. Those guys are probably even better than Martinez.