Burns: Katsidis doesn’t look that much bigger than me

By Boxing News - 10/29/2011 - Comments

Image: Burns: Katsidis doesn't look that much bigger than meBy Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO super featherweight champion Ricky Burns (32-2, 9 KO’s) can’t stop talking about how relieved he is at moving up in weight to the lightweight division to be facing Michael Katsidis (28-4, 23 KO’s) on November 5th without having to worry to make the super featherweight limit of 130 pounds rather than the 135 lbs at lightweight.

At the time that Burns moved up in weight he was scheduled to face unbeaten Adrien Broner in what likely have been a sure fire loss for Burns. Now that he’s moved up in weight, and thus avoided losing his title in the ring, Burns has another opponent where he’s going to have serious problems with in Katsidis.

While Burns is talking about how strong he feels at lightweight the fact of the matter is he isn’t a big puncher and he’s fast nor hard to hit. In taking a look at Burns last four fights against Roman Martinez, Andreas Evensen, Joseph Laryea and Nicky Cook what jumps out at me is the slapping, weak punches that Burns throws.

There’s nothing on them and he’s basically gotten over against weak opposition for the most part with the exception of the Martinez fight. Martinez had problems making the weight in that fight, and yet he still had Burns badly hurt in the 7th round.

In the previous round, Burns needed to have a point taken off because he tagged Martinez well after the 6th round ended. A point deduction wouldn’t have made any difference in the decision, but I still think Burns should have lost a point. Martinez isn’t the puncher that Katsidis is and we’re going to see that immediately in this fight. Burns won’t be able to keep the bigger Katsidis off of him.

Burns said to thesun.co.uk “He [Katsidis] doesn’t look that much bigger than me.”

It doesn’t matter who the bigger fighter is on November 5th. Katsidis will still be the much stronger and quicker fighter. Burns is a slower more vulnerable version of Kevin Mitchell. He’s the kind of guy that Katsidis tears apart.

Katsidis does have problems when put in with guys like Juan Manuel Marquez and Robert Guerrero, but he doesn’t have problems against British fighters like Burns. Katsidis thrives on facing the Burns types of fighters, and we’ll see that next week.



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