By Scott Gilfoid: ESPN is reporting that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer will likely be looking to make a fight between Richard Abril (17-3-1, 8 KO’s) and WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s) as the backup plan after it was learned that their main target WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns will be fighting on January 26th next year in Glasgow in a title defense. Abril, 5’10”, will be a good option for Broner if Golden Boy can make that fight.
Abril is coming off of an impressive 12 round decision loss to former WBA Word lightweight champion Brandon Rios last April in a fight Rios was lucky to win because the boxing world saw him as a clear loser in that fight. Abril fought really well and showed remarkably well in that fight, making Rios miss and hitting him constantly with pinpoint shots.
Abril showed in that fight that he’s definitely one of the best fighters at 135.
It’s still hard to figure out why Burns won’t be fighting Broner in February because Schaefer said he wanted to try and convince Burns to take that bout with the unbeaten American star. But I guess something isn’t right. Some boxing fans are already saying that Burns is ducking Broner, but who knows what the deal is?
I want to give Burns the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe he wasn’t ready for a fight of that magnitude yet and he wants to get a little tune-up fight in before that in January. If that’s the case I can kind of understand it, but I really don’t see much logic in that because Burns can take a lifetime worth of tune-up fights and it won’t help him.
Broner is simply too talented for Burns to beat, so the way I see it Burns should just get it over with and take the fight now. Of course, if he doesn’t really want the fight and just wants to keep fighting guys like Kevin Mitchell, then I can understand that as well.
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