By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO’s) is optimistic that his broken jaw will be healed enough for him to defend his title in February against his #1 WBO Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) to willful his WBO ordered title defense against the crafty American.
However, with the way that Burns is talking, we could see him not being ready to defend his WBO strap at that time. How long it would take for his jaw to be ready is anyone’s guess.
“When I was in to see the surgeon last week, we got an X-ray and they’re happy the way the bone’s healing,” Burns said to Sky Sports. “The bone’s knitting together nice. They still can’t tell what it’s going to be like, obviously when it starts taking punches again when I start back sparring.”
Knitting? I think I smell the beginnings of what could be a delay for Burns to get back in the ring. God, I hope I’m wrong. It’s not as if Burns is going to be able to avoid the fight with Terence Crawford. He’s still going to be there waiting even if it takes Burns all of 2014 for his injured jaw to finally heal. Crawford is going to get his title shot, unless Burns’ promoter Eddie Hearn pulls the old unification bit by matching Burns against one of the other lightweight champions like Miguel Vazquez or Richard Abril. If that’s the case then there’s not much Crawford can do. If Burns loses to Vazquez, then he won’t have his WBO title any longer. If he beats him, then I suspect Burns will vacate the WBO strap so that he doesn’t have to fight Crawford. Burns would then hold onto the IBF belt and defend it against the contenders they have there.
Burns had his jaw broken in his last fight in September by Raymundo Beltran by a big left hook he took in one of the earlier rounds of the fight. Burns was knocked down in the 4th and took a vicious beating, yet the judges still gave him a 12 round draw. It was one of the most one-sided fights that you’ll ever see, and that’s it was so incredibly odd that the judges gave Burns a draw. The fight was staged in Burns’ hometown of Glasgow, Scotland.
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