By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’ former promoter Frank Warren has revealed that Burns didn’t want the unification fight with WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) when it was offered to him.
We had previously heard that Burns wasn’t interested in facing the talented Broner, but now Burns’ ex-promoter is revealing it to the world in his latest column.
Warren said to thesun.co.uk “He [Burns] was offered the Adrien Broner fight in writing, and he didn’t want that.”
Oh, this is so, so sad. Burns turned down the fight with Broner. Now why would Burns say no to a fight like that when it would easily have given him the biggest payday of his career, a chance to unify the lightweight titles, and a heap of publicity around the world? Why would Burns turn down such a fight?
Burns’ new promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport said that one of the first things that Burns mentioned to him after signing with his promotional stable was that he wanted a fight against Broner. It sounds good right. However, this was after the news had already come out that Broner was moving up to 147 to challenge WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi on June 22nd in New York.
So Burns is suddenly interested in the fight with Broner, but his interest coincides with the news that Broner is moving up in weight after having given up on trying to land a fight with him.
Why did it take Burns so long to start showing interest? Broner has been trying to get a fight with him ever since he was a super featherweight, but it’s only after Broner decides to move up to welterweight that we’re hearing that Burns is interested in fighting him.
Broner has moved on to bigger and better things, so even if Burns is legitimately interested in facing him now all of a sudden, which I highly doubt, there’s no point in Broner wasting anymore more of his precious time trying to land that fight. If you snooze you lose, and I think Burns has too many chances already in fighting what could be the eventual #1 fighter in all of boxing in terms of pay-per-view sales.
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