By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (34-2, 9 KO’s) wishes he were fighting for the Ring Magazine lightweight title on Saturday night instead of merely defending his WBO strap against #1 WBO Kevin Mitchell (33-1, 24 KO’s) in Glasgow, Scotland. Burns, 29, is ranked #3 behind #1 Antonio DeMarco and #2 Miguel Vazquez. The actual Ring lightweight title is vacant at this time, but it will likely be filled in the near future with Adrien Broner moving up in weight to content in this weight class.

Burns said this as quoted by RingTV from STV “The only thing that I’d really like to fight for is THE RING magazine title. I always said I’d have loved to have fought for that title at super featherweight. I’m think I’m rated No. 3 in THE RING’s lightweight rankings.”

Broner isn’t ranked in the top 10 in the Ring lightweight rankings as of yet, but you can bet that he’ll be right up there at #1 after he beats Antonio DeMarco in November. That’ll put Burns in a position where he’ll either agree to fight Broner – and then get beaten badly – or he’ll choose not to take the fight. My guess is Burns will opt not to fight Broner and play it safe by just dutifully defending his World Boxing Organization strap for as long as possible.

I don’t see Burns as holding onto his WBO title even if he does choose to avoid fighting Broner. Burns has some talented fighters breathing down his neck in Sharif Bogere, Jose Gonzalez and Sergio Thompson. Those guys are so good that they’d be able to go to Scotland and beat Burns by taking the judges and referee out of the fight by knocking him out. Those guys can punch and have a lot of talent. It’ll be bad for Burns when he eventually faces one of those guys.

Burns should worry his head about thing like the Ring lightweight title because I don’t think it’s meant for him. That title belt has Broner’s name written all over it and he’ll be the one to snatch it up in the next year.