Broner to fight on February 16th, Ricky Burns the leading candidate

By Scott Gilfoid: WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s) will be back fighting on February 16th on HBO, and WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) is reportedly the leading candidate for the fight, according to RingTV.

Burns isn’t nailed down for the fight, though, because he first of all has to win his scheduled fight next Saturday night against 2nd tier replacement opponent Jose Ocampo (17-5-1, 12 KO’s), but the odds are very high that Burns wins that fight without problems given the opposition that’s been picked out for him.

Broner and his dad want the fight with Burns, but it’s unclear whether Burns will take the fight. Burns had the chance to fight Broner last year, but he didn’t take it and instead vacated his World Boxing Organization super featherweight belt.

Broner’s dad sees Burns pulling another vacate job again and moving up in weight to light welterweight rather than stepping inside the ring and facing what could be a demolition job on him by the talented Broner.

Personally, I see Burns doing what he did in the past and vacating rather than taking the fight. If not a not a vacate job, I see something else coming up for Burns, like fight with British fringe contender Liam Walsh. That’s the guy that Burns was supposed to be fighting next Saturday but he was injured during a car accident and had to pull out of the fight.

I see Ocampo as about as good as Walsh, and I figure that’s the direction Burns will go in if he chooses not to vacate the title altogether.

Broner is just so good right now that he’d wipe out a guy like Burns with no problems. We saw what Broner did against the best fighter in the lightweight division in Antonio DeMarco recently with his 8th round TKO victory last month. I rate DeMarco as a better fighter than Burns, so you can only imagine what Broner would do to Burns if given the chance. Like I said, I don’t expect Broner to get that chance. My guess is Burns will either vacate like Broner’s sad is predicting that he’ll do or he’ll ignore the challenge from Broner and instead fight Walsh or someone like Gavin Rees.