Burns vs. Vazquez: Miguel is going to make it difficult for Ricky to brawl

By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) prefers to brawl with his opponents much in the fighting style as WBC interim welterweight champion Robert Guerrero in that Burns take the fight to his opponents, and then gets physical with them once he gets in close.

That’s what makes Burns so good is that he roughs up his opponents in close with a variety of tactics, some of which aren’t within the boxing rules. Burns has been blessed thus far during his career with most of his opponents being stationary fighters that allow him to slug and rough them up at close quarters.

However, on May 16th, Burns will be fighting IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez (33-3, 13 KO’s) at the Wembley Arena in London, England. Fighting the elusive Vazquez is like trying to punch water.

Vaquez gives ground, and moves constantly around the ring. His punches come from all angles, and he doesn’t load up on shots, which makes him much harder to hit because he doesn’t overextend himself like other fighters do when they face Burns.

Burns pretty much depends on his opponents either standing in one spot or coming right at him for 12 rounds, and some of his opposition has been just god awful during three years. Burns has really only fought one good opponent during the last three years, and that was Roman Martinez in 2010, and he almost beat Burns.

It was a pretty close fight, and I would have liked to have seen a rematch between them because it was close enough to where I think Martinez deserved one. But if you look at the rest of Burns’ opposition, it’s been pretty poor.

This is who Burns has fought:

Kevin Mitchell – already exposed by Michael Katsidis
Michael Katsidis – beaten by a number of top fighters before facing Burns
Nicky Cook – took the fight with Burns with a bad back
Joseph Laryea – Who?
Abdreas Evensen – Who?
Paulus Moses – a past is best fighter

Vazquez is going to be an unreal step up in class for Burns and I don’t think he’s going to be able to take that step very well without struggling and failing miserably.