By Scott Gilfoid: Rather than take a risky rematch with former WBO super featherweight champion Ramon Martinez, Ricky Burns (29-2, 7 KO’s) could be steered into a much safer fight against 32-year-old Alex Arthur (28-3, 20 KO’s) for Burn’s first title defense. Arthur, at one time the WBO interim super featherweight champion, has lost two out of his last four fights and isn’t currently ranked in the top 15 in the super featherweight division.

In other words, Arthur is a 2nd tier fighter. I wasn’t expecting much from Burns for his first title defense but I was hoping he’d at least be fighting a 1st tier opponent and not aging 2nd tier guy.

Granted, Burns doesn’t have a lot of power and will likely lose his title at some point in the near future, but I’m hoping he takes on better fighters and not just milks his title for all it’s worth. There are a lot of fighters out there that I would consider much better options than a guy that has lost two out of his four fights.

How about Burns fighting Robert Guerrero, Martinez, Jorge Linares, Jorge Solis or Juan Carlos Salgado? Anyone of those fighters would be nice, don’t you think? Burns was hurt a couple of times by Martinez last Saturday night, and it was later discovered that Martinez had weight problems before the fight.

I was wondering why he didn’t look as good as he normally does. Martinez looked great when he ripped apart Nicky Cook in 2009, in his 4th round TKO win. That was an in shape Martinez, but last Saturday night he looked bad physically. He still almost beat Burns and had him down on the canvas in the 1st with a scorching right hand to the head, and then had Burns staggering around the ring like a drunk in the 7th after hitting him with a hard shot.

Like I said, I don’t figure Burns will hold onto the title for long because he doesn’t have any power to speak of, but I still want the guy to take on the best competition out there. Why fight Arthur? If Burns is as good as people say he is, he shouldn’t need to milk his title with easier fights against guys that aren’t ranked in the top 15, right?