By Scott Gilfoid: Despite being ranked at only #7 WBA at light welterweight and not having done much in that division, Ricky Burns (39-5-1, 13 KOs) will be fighting for the vacant WBA 140lb title on Saturday night against #1 WBA Michele Di Rocco (40-1-1, 18 KOs at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.
It couldn’t get any easier than this for the 33-year-old Burns. Di Rocco is terribly flawed with a built up record based on wins over C-level fighters. Di Rocco has been fighting the type of guys that one would start their career out fighting. But instead of moving from facing weaker opponents to the top rung of the light welterweight division, Di Rocco continued to fight the weaker opponents right up to his fight against Burns on Saturday night.
In looking at some of Di Rocco’s recent fights, I must say it’s a good thing he didn’t step it up against 1st tier opposition because I think he would have been hopelessly outclassed. He just doesn’t have the punching power or the talent in my view to compete with the best. As such, I think Burns has a great chance to beat Di Rocco to win his third division world title.
Burns has already captured world titles at super featherweight and lightweight. Winning a title at 140 was something that I thought was impossible for Burns before when the division was stacked with high caliber champions like Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner, Terence Craword and Lamont Peterson. But with Peterson and Garcia now both fighting at 147, it has opened up a small window for Burns to slide into for him to capture the WBA light welterweight title. Yeah, Burns will be seen by many as little more than a paper champion, but he’ll still have won a third division world title.
Burns’ record at light welterweight is 1-1. That’s not too good, is it? Burns’ last fight was at lightweight against Josh King, who he beat by an 11th round knockout last November in Liverpool, UK.
“I saw him last week. He looks sharp and hungry and that’s how he always is. People forget he went the distance with Terence Crawford, who knocked out Yuriorkis Gamboa. That’s the class he’s been in with and that’s how good he really is,” said Kevin Mitchell to skysports.com about Burns.
There’s no question that Burns has the hunger. He’s hungry and he’s hard working. The guy definitely wants to extend his career for as long as possible. Burns ran into some bad luck when he took on three talented fighters in Raymundo Beltran, Terence Crawford and Dejan Zlaticanin.
Burns lost to Crawford and Zlaticanin and should have lost to Beltran but he was given a controversial 12 round draw in a fight that many boxing fans saw Beltran easily winning. I still remember that fight. Burns fought hard for exactly one round before suffering a jaw injury in the 2nd round after getting nailed by a big left hook from Beltran. From the 2nd round on, Burns did nothing more than hold and cover up on the ropes. I gave Burns two rounds and had Beltran winning the last 10 rounds. It pretty shocking to see Burns get a draw out of that fight. The fight took place in Glasgow, Scotland.
Burns also was beaten by a bloated Omar Figueroa in May of 2015 in losing a 12 round decision. Burns could have won the fight if he’d just stopped holding. Burns was holding all night long despite being warned frequently by the referee let go of Figueroa and start fighting, but he seemed incapable of doing that. Burns would throw a few punches and then grab Figueroa to keep from getting hit back. it was basically the same stuff we saw from Kell Brook in his fight against Shawn Porter in 2014. Burns ended up getting docked two points for his holding in the 8th and 11th rounds of the contest. Burns was lucky he didn’t get disqualified because he just wasn’t following the instructions from the referee. When a referee tells you to stop holding, they mean it. When a referee takes a point off for your holding, then you had better stop holding. Burns didn’t learn and ended up getting docked a second point for his nonstop holding. If it had been me as the referee, I would have had to disqualify Burns. I would have hated to do it, but what can you do when you’ve got a fighter with octopus arms that doesn’t want to fight properly.
“He’s a two-weight world champion and he’s going for his third weight title now. He should be a mega name,” said Mitchell.
Burns would have been a mega-star after he started being promoted by Eddie Hearn if he hadn’t immediately started losing over and over again. The three defeats to Crawford, Zlaticanin and Figueroa really hurt Burns’ career. If he had won all those fights and beaten Beltran, then I think there’s no question that Burns would be one of Hearn’s major stars in his Matchroom Sport stable. But unfortunately for Burns, he lost a bunch of fights, and now he’s moved up to 140 to fight a guy with an inflated resume in Di Rocco for the vacant title. It’s not an ideal situation in terms of turning Burns into a star.
Burns may win a world title on Saturday night, but that’s only because he’s facing a guy with a padded record rather than the real talents in the division in Crawford and Viktor Postol. If Burns could beat one of those guys for a world title, then his career would likely be turned completely around. But for some reason, Burns isn’t being matched against Crawford and Postol and you have to wonder why. Burns can beat Di Rocco with his eyes closed in my opinion, but I do not see Burns as having the talent to compete against the cream of the light welterweight division. I mean, if you put Burns in with Postol, Crawford and Adrien Broner, I see Burns being exposed and soundly beaten. However, it’s not Burns’ fault that the WBA has Di Rocco at #1. It’s not Burns’ fault that the WBA is letting him fight for a world title despite having a 1-1 record in his two fights in that weight class.