By Scott Gilfoid: Ryan Walsh, the brother of #13 WBO Liam Walsh (13-0, 10 KO’s), sees his brother’s speed as being too much for WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) on December 15th at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, London, United Kingdom.

Ryan told the BBC Radio Norfolk “I fancy him [Walsh] big time. Liam’s speed should definitely be key. Boxing’s about styles, not size Give me speed.”

Well, I do agree with Ryan that his brother Liam Walsh is faster than Burns, but then again that’s not saying much because neither guy is fast. Walsh is just a little bit faster than the slow as molasses Burns, but that’s not much to brag about. I could see it if Burns had the hand speed of someone like Andre Dirrell or Adrien Broner, but he doesn’t.

Burn’s just a slow lightweight who’s main advantage from what I can see is his size. Burns just comes into his fights like heavy for the weight class and it obviously helps him. I see Burns as the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. of the lightweight division. Burns looks like a welterweight on fight nights and it would be interesting to see just how heavy he is.

Walsh may be the faster guy but he’s still going to get royally spanked by Burns in this fight. He was obviously picked out from the near bottom ranking position by Burns’ team for a reason. You didn’t see a higher ranked contender picked out to fight Burns like Sergio Thompson, Sharif Bogere or Jose Gonzales, did you?

What we’re seeing here is more of the soft matchmaking that Burns is becoming known for getting. It’s sad that he’s still not faced a quality opponent and moved up in weight when he had a chance to fight Broner. I know Burns is saying he’ll fight Broner next year, but I don’t believe that for a second. When Burns doesn’t fight Broner in 2013, we’ll likely hear Burns say he’ll fight Broner in 2014, and so on. It doesn’t matter because Broner is heading for stardom and it won’t matter if Burns doesn’t choose to fight him because Broner will move up to light welterweight and then welterweight to beat the best fighters at those weights. Broner isn’t going to lose sleep when he can’t get a fight with Burns.