By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) could be looking another easy mark when he gets in the ring for his next fight on December 15th. Instead of facing his WBO mandatory challenger, which the WBO president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel said Burns had to fight next, it’s expected that Burns will take yet another easy fight by facing fellow Brit fringe contender #13 WBO Liam Walsh (13-0, 10 KO’s) next, according to the Scottish Sun. Walsh is the WBO European lightweight strap holder, which means zero in my book.

This sounds perfectly awful title milking fight, but will be surprised if the 26-year-old southpaw Walsh gets the fight with Burns? Nope. This will be pretty much right on course with some of the guys that Burns has fought in the past when he held the WBO super featherweight title. Walsh is only ranked in the top 15 by the WBO, and I see him as top 60 fighter and no way a top 15 contender. I wonder if the World Boxing Organization president will allow Burns to face this guy?

Valcarcel did say that Burns had to fight his WBO mandatory next, so why in the heck is a near bottom ranked fringe contender like Walsh being mentioned as the likely next opponent to fight Burns? Is the WBO going to let Burns take a soft opponent for his next fight instead of making him face a dangerous mandatory challenger like Sharif Bogere or Jose Gonzalez.

I’ve seen a number of Walsh’s fights and I can’t see how on earth the WBO ranked this guy in the top 15. As far as I can tell, he’s fought only one non-domestic fighter in recently beating 2nd tier fighter Italian Domenico Urbano last July. Walsh lacks hand speed, major power and defense. He just looks like domestic level fighter to me, and I can’t believe this guy could end up fighting for a world title. I mean like I said, I won’t be surprised one bit if Burns fights this guy because he’s only one of three UK fighters that the WBO has ranked in the top 15.

Burns just beat one of the other ones in Kevin Mitchell. The other UK fighter Gavin Rees is still available. The WBO ruled out Burns being able to fight fellow Scot, Scott Harrison because he’s not even ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies. However, you can bet that Harrison will soon be ranked and Burns will be fighting him next year.