Will Ricky Burns face a quality opponent on March 10th?

By Boxing News - 01/04/2012 - Comments

Image: Will Ricky Burns face a quality opponent on March 10th?By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight interim champion Ricky Burns (33-2, 9 KO’s) has got a fight coming up on March 10th in his native Scotland. Thus far, there hasn’t been an opponent picked out for the 28-year-old Burns but I’m really not expecting much. Burns has been matched with kid gloves pretty much on a continuous basis since he barely beat a weight drained Roman Martinez for the WBO super featherweight title in September 2010.

Burns has had four fights since then over pretty much not recognizable names other than his fight in the UK against Michael Katsidis, which I saw Burns losing by fairly lopsided decision. But I know the how the deal goes about fighting in your own neck of the woods. It counts for a lot unfortunately. Katsidis isn’t really a great fighter at lightweight, but he did a number on Burns, outworking him the entire fight and landing an awful lot of head shots in the fight. Burns looked like he’d had his back glued to the ropes because that’s where he stayed pretty much the entire fight.

Burns is fighting at home and he’s just trying to hold onto the World Boxing Organization interim strap long enough to get the full title dropped in his lap after the current champion Juan Manuel Marquez moves up in weight this year to fight at light welterweight. Burns probably isn’t going to face anyone that can beat him and ruin his chance to get a title. In looking over the current top 15 ranked contenders for the WBO, I see Burns facing #15 bottom dweller Gavin Reeds, #14 Daniel Estrada, #13 Sanfo Tyson or #12 David Diaz.

I can’t see Burns being matched against anyone better than those guys. But I also think Burns could be put in with a 2nd tier fighter or one of the fringe contenders from the super featherweight division. I hope I’m wrong about this but I think I’ll be right. I can’t see Burns facing anyone of quality that can beat him. Burns had a chance to fight to finally fight a quality fighter last November in a fight with Adrien Broner, but Burns instead vacated his belt and moved up to claim the interim strap. I just hope Broner doesn’t move up in weight anytime soon because I’d hate to see Burns maybe dash away from the lightweight division all of a sudden again.

After winning the WBO super featherweight title in 2010 here are the guys that Burns fought until vacating the belt when Broner was about to fight him:

Andreas Evensen
Joseph Laryea
Nicky Cook

Pretty dangerous bunch, eh?



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