By Scott Gifloid: Rather than taking on more dangerous fighters and or younger fighters, WBO super featherweight champion Ricky Burns (30-2, 7 KO’s) is looking to fight a unification bout against the aging 37-year-old IBF super featherweight champion Mzonke Fana (30-4, 12 KO’s) next. I see this as a terrible fight, because Fana is old, and I don’t rate him in the same class as younger fighters in the division like Jore Linares, Takashi Uchyama, Jason Litzau, Robert Guerrero, Takahiro Aoh, Roman Martinez, Celestino Caballero, Jorge Solis or Vitali Tajbert.

I see Fana as a paper champion. You have to wonder why Burns wants to fight him. Burns already had an easy title defense in his last fight against little known Andreas Evensen in December. I never even heard of that guy before, but I wasn’t surprised when Burns fought him instead of Solis or Guerrero. I think those guys would have made short work of Burns and blasted him out easily. I don’t want to see Burns face a paper champion. Fana is a decent fighter, but I rate him around number #8 or #9 in the super featherweight division.

Burns was able to pick up the World Boxing Organization title last year with a win over a weight drained Roman Martinez in September. Martinez, who struggled to take off a ton of weight during training camp, knocked Burns down in the 1st round. But all the weight that Martinez had taken off left him drained in the following rounds and Burns was able to come on and win a 12 round decision. In a rematch, I would favor Martinez if he didn’t struggle to make weight again.

I want to see Burns take on Guerrero or Linares. I doubt he will, because those guys are the real deal and when those fights happen, Burns will take a bad beating and lose his title. But that’s who Burns should be fighting instead of trying to go after an old lion like Fana.