By Scott Gilfoid: Former two division world champion Ricky Burns (36-3-1, 11 KO’s) will be returning to the ring in the summer on June 27th in a fight that will take place in his native Scotland, in Glasgow. Burns is rumored to be facing the winner of the April 19th fight between lightweight contenders John Murray (33-2, 20 KO’s) and Anthony Crolla (27-4-1, 10 KO’s).
Having Burns fight either of those guys gives him a good chance of picking up a win, but it’s not likely to change anything in terms of improving him and getting him ready to face the champions in the division to try and recapture a world title. At 30, Burns is the finished product, and he’s not young enough to improve off of wins over fringe contenders or gate keepers.
While I like the idea of Burns staying busy with his career, I don’t see a fight between him and one of those fighters changing anything for him in terms of him being able to compete against new WBO lightweight champion Terrence Crawford or against the other lightweight champions Miguel Vazquez, Richard Abril and Omar Figueroa. Those guys are just too good for Burns.
What Burns should be doing instead of fighting the Crolla-Murray winner is taking on guys like Ray Beltran, Jorge Linares or Yuriorkis Gamboa to put himself back in position for world title shot. In other words, having Burns fight the quality in the lightweight division instead of two guys hanging around and not really having the talent to win an actual world title.
Gamboa, Linares and Beltran are three fighters who have the ability to win a world title at lightweight, and Burns can’t go wrong facing any of them. Burns already has what many boxing fans feel was a gift 12 round draw against Beltran in their fight last year in September in Glasgow, so he would be perfect for Burns to fight again.
At least by facing Beltran a second time, Burns could try and erase the controversy over his previous fight with him by either proving that he’s better than him or proving that he doesn’t have the talent to beat him. I mean, I had Beltran beating Burns 11 rounds to 1 in their fight last year, but I got a good laugh at the scores of the three judges, and I was totally not surprised that Beltran got the shaft like that.
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