Ricky Burns faces Paulus Moses on March 10th

By Boxing News - 01/12/2012 - Comments

Image: Ricky Burns faces Paulus Moses on March 10thBy Scott Gilfoid: WBO interim lightweight champion Ricky Burns (33-2, 9 KO’s) will take a slight step up upwards in competition on March 10th when he defends his World Boxing Organization title against 33-year-old former WBA World lightweight champion Paulus Moses (28-1, 19 KO’s) at the Braehead Arena in Glascow, Scotland.

Moses, ranked #4 WBO, is a decent fighter but he’s not what some people are shaping him up to be. He’s an aging former champion who recently knocked out by Miguel Acosta in the 4th round two years ago in a one-sided fight. Moses has few wins over quality fighters on his resume.

As far as I can tell, the only good opponents that Moses has ever fought were Andriy Kudryavtsev, Takehiro Shimata an Acosta. The rest of the fighters on Moses’ resume either have losing records or fighters with inflated records like him. Moses may be ranked #4, but I see him more as a bottom #15 contender.

This is just another safe fight for Burns to take. There’s little dangerous from Moses because in the fights I’ve seen him, he does little more than jabbing and occasionally throwing a pawing right hand and left hook. Moses’ left hook is quite good but he holds onto it like a miser and rarely throws it. The guy would be so much better if he actually threw punches instead of fighting tentatively behind his jab. I think he’s a little bit better than Michael Katsidis, Burns’ last opponent, but not by much. Moses is looking like he’s aged in his last couple of fights and isn’t quite the same fighter he was earlier in his career.

I’d rather see Burns fight better opposition than this like Anthony Peterson, Urbano Antillon, Acosta, Robert Guerrero, Kevin Mitchell, Jorge Linares, John Molina, and Brandon Rios. Unfortunately, most if not all of those guys would beat Burns, likely by a knockout. They’re obviously going to get a shot against Burns being as good as they are. Burns has been matched carefully in the last two years with few risks.

Actually, the only slightly risky fight Burn has been in since 2010 was Katsidis, but that guy was coming off of a terribly one-sided 12 round decision loss to Guerrero in his fight before that. Burns struggled badly against Katsidis in winning a 12 round decision. I had Katsidis winning that fight. But it did show you how much better Guerrero is compared to Burns because Burns struggled against a guy that Guerrero had an easy time with. So I guess it’s fair to say that Burns is a paper champion. If he really wanted to impress, he wouldn’t go picking out guys that were recently knocked out like Moses. Instead, he would call out Guerrero and get prove something. I guess Guerrero is too dangerous.



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