By Scott Gilfoid: Writer Steve Bunce doesn’t think that WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns should fight Adrien Broner, because Bunce feels that Broner hasn’t earned the shot and doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of money.
Bunce said in his column at ESPN.co.uk “Can someone tell me a reason why Burns should give Broner a chance? It makes no sense. I guarantee you the gate receipts for Broner vs. [Antonio] DeMarco will be less than was paid to Burns and Mitchell…Broner vs. [Kevin] Mitchell, now that’s a good bout. For Burns, he should look towards John Murray.”
That’s hilarious. Bunce sounds like he’s protecting Burns from getting knocked out. I especially like the part where Bunce suggests that Burns fight Murray, the guy that Mitchell already destroyed. So in other words, Burns should fight Murray after he was already beaten by Mitchell. That makes no sense at all. Of course, I think Bunce is only thinking in terms of money for the fights and not what’s good for building Burns’ legacy or improving his worldwide status.
Yeah, I guess if Burns just fights guys from the UK all the time he’ll pack the house because a lot of British boxing fans, the casual ones, might have never heard of Adrien Broner or Antonio DeMarco. But that doesn’t mean you should close the doors to the country and just fight in house Brit fights over and over. That would be club fighting if Burns were to just fight domestic competition. What good is that?
It would be a slaughter if Broner fought Mitchell. That wouldn’t even be sporting. Broner would destroy Michael Katsidis, the fighter that blew Mitchell out in three rounds. I know the story already about how Mitchell wasn’t 100% for the Katsidis fight, and not buying it. He lost for the same reason he lost to Burns, and that’s because Mitchell’s chin is fragile and he can be overpowered by fighters that are heavier than him. Let me break the news to Bunce. Broner won’t be wasting his time on fighting Mitchell. There’s no demand for a fight between a talented unbeaten American and a Brit that keeps getting knocked out. This was the second time that Mitchell has been stopped and HBO would say no to him as an opponent for Broner. That wouldn’t fly.
I think it would be sad if Burns was to follow Bunce’s advice and take on John Murray. I see that as a regressive move towards the weak opposition that Burns has feasted on since his super featherweight days. Burns needs to be stepping up and facing guys like Sergio Thompson, Broner and Sharif Bogere. If the Brits haven’t heard of those guys then they need to read up because these are ranked highly the WBO. Burns is going to have to fight one of them sooner or later and he can’t use an excuse that it won’t sell in the UK not to fight them. Burns is a World champion, not a domestic champion that can pick and choose Brits to fight. That phase of his career is over since he was given the WBO strap by the World Boxing Organization.
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