By Ian Aldous: On Saturday July 16th at the Echo arena in Liverpool, Ricky Burns (31-2) defends his WBO Super-featherweight title against fellow Brit, Nicky Cook (30-2). One thing is for sure that night. The atmosphere will be feisty and tickets are selling fast. It’s always special whenever England and Scotland compete in any sporting event. It’s also even spicier due to the fact that Nicky Cook used to own the very same belt that he will be challenging for.

The common opponent of both fighters is former WBO champion, Roman Martinez (24-1-1). If you were to pick a winner from performances of both men against that common opponent, then it would have to be Ricky Burns. Martinez impressively stopped Nicky Cook in March 2009 and went on to defend the belt twice before he dropped a unanimous decision to Ricky Burns in September 2010. Ricky was a huge betting underdog that night and not too many fans/experts of the sport would have picked him to beat Martinez. It was a fight-of-the-year contender and a massive feather in his cap, especially after he was knocked down in the very 1st round. He showed tremendous courage to win that fight. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see those two fight again further down the line, but that’s a story for another day.

It does seem surprising to me that Nicky is getting a rematch after just one fight in over two years. But, domestic fights are always marketable and it will sell more tickets than Ricky defending against a foreign fighter that not too many mainstream fans have heard of. This will be his third defence of the belt in 10 months, so it’s good all-round for UK fight fans to see him being very active.

Some fans might look at the two guys that Ricky has defended his title against (Andreas Evensen by Unanimous decision and Joseph Laryea by 7th round retirement) and say that they’re not particularly top fighters in the division, but for me the toughness he displayed against Roman Martinez was enough to show he’s worthy of calling himself a world class fighter. I tend to side with the champion. I’ll go with Burns to pick up a unanimous decision.

If Ricky does secure the win, I’d like to see him go after one of the other champions in the division: WBC champion, Takahiro Ao or WBA champion, Takashi Uchiyama. How easy it would be to get either of those Japanese fighters over to the UK, I’m not sure.

Who are you picking in this battle of Scotland Vs. England?