By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’ September 7th fight with #8 WBO, Raymundo Beltran (28-6, 17 KO’s) is now official and will be taking place at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. This is supposed to be very winnable fight for Burns, but after seeing him struggle to beat Jose Gonzalez last May, I’m not so certain.
If Burns does win, there’s a possibility that he could face unbeaten American talent Terrence Crawford (21-0, 16 KO’s) next year in a fight that would be televised on HBO. Burns’ promoter Eddie Hearn is having discussions about a Burns-Crawford fight next year, and it obviously would be a nice money fight for both guys.
Crawford has quickly established himself as possibly the best fighter in the 135 lb. division recently, and it would be very interesting to see how Burns does against this young talent. As good as Adrien Broner is, I rate Crawford as a MUCH better fighter with a lot more areas to his game than the 23-year-old Broner.
Burns said to Sky Sports “That’s the sort of thing you want to hear your promoter saying – talking about big fights and going to America. But I’ve always said one fight at a time.”
You got that right. Burns better not overlook Beltran because this guy is a great pressure fighter and he’s going to be in Burns face all night long looking to slug with him. I see Beltran as a bigger version of Michael Katsidis but with two good power punches rather than just one. We saw how Burns struggled to beat Katsidis two years ago in 2011 in a hard-fought victory.
I’ve never seen Burns take as much punishment as he did in that fight. Now just imagine the kind of punishment he’ll absorb against an even better pressure fighter in Beltran.
As for Burns possibly fighting Crawford in 2014, I don’t see it happening. I think Hearn will steer Burns to safer waters and keep him far, far away from Crawford.
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