By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the promoter for WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2, 11 KO’s), says he wants to put the 30-year-old Burns in a unification bout after he takes care of his scheduled September 7th title defense against #6 WBO Raymundo Belt (28-6, 17 KO’s) at the Scottish exhibition Centre, Glasgow, Scotland.
Hearn had been talking about matching Burns against his #1 WBO challenger Terence Crawford in a fight that he wants to take place in Glasgow. However, it looks like Hearn has either seen Crawford and realized that it’s no-win situation for Burns, or he might have just been name dropping to get some of the attention from American boxing fans for Burns.
Crawford is quickly becoming a star in the U.S, and by mentioning his name in the same breath as Burns, it gives Burns a lot of attention.
Hearn said to the Dailyrecord.co.uk “He [Burns] needs one more title defense before we can talk about a unification fight and there’s no better place to have it than in Glasgow. I rate Ricky the best lightweight in the world.”
So what Hearn is saying is he won’t bother having Burns defend his title against his #1 challenger Terence Crawford after Burns’ optional title defense against Beltran. Instead, Hearn will look to match him against one of the following lightweight champions in Glasgow: WBA champion Richard Abril or IBF champ Miguel Vazquez.
What’s the point in making those fights when neither of those guys are great fighters. I see them as belt holders, but that’s about it. Hearn already had the option of matching Burns against WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner, but they didn’t take the fight, which isn’t surprising at all.
If Hearn believes that Burns is the best lightweight in the division then he must have not seen Broner, Crawford or Omar Figueroa fight before, because I rate all three of those lights well above Burns.
Burns looked terrible in his last fight in beating Jose Gonzalez last May. That was a really bad performance by Burns, and it wasn’t because he was doing anything wrong. He simply was facing a superior fighter.
Beltran is going to be really tough for Burns, and I can see this fight going down to the scorecards with Burns winning controversial decision. Beltran is no joke. He’s got wins over Ji-Hoon Kim and Hank Lundy, and I think Lundy would dominate Burns if that fight happened. Lundy is a lot better than Burns in my view.
I see Hearn matching Burns in a unification bout in order to have him avoid the Crawford fight. Hearn has got to know that Burns’ time will be up as a champion once he puts him in with Crawford. So by putting Burns in a unification bout, Hearn avoids a certain loss for Burns while at the same time giving Burns a chance to pick up another title. If Burns can get another strap, he then vacate the WBO title and avoid a one-sided loss to Crawford. Burns would be pulling another vacating job, but at least he’d avoid getting badly beaten by Crawford.
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