By Scott Gilfoid:WBA World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns (41-5-1, 14 KOs) weighed in at 139 ¼ pounds on Friday at his official weigh-in for his unification fight against IBF 140lb champion Julius Indongo (21-0, 15 KOs) for their fight on Saturday night at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. Indongo, 34 also weighed in at 139 ¼ lbs.
Believe me, the weight is the only thing that Burns and the 5’10 ½” Indongo will have in common in this bout. The southpaw Indongo is a HUGE puncher with excellent hand speed, whereas Burns is slow, fights out of the right-handed orthodox stance and weak in the power department. The biggest difference between them is Burns is a big clincher while Indongo is more of a fighter.
Burns’ boxing fans are pretty excited about the Indongo fight. Some of them feel like this is a match that will help shape Burns’ legacy in the sport. I don’t know if I feel the same way. Indongo is a decent fighter, but come on; he’s not up there with talents like Terence Crawford, Viktor Postol, Antonio Orozco and Rances Barthelemy.
Both fighters looked in good shape at the weigh-in. You couldn’t tell much from looking at them. Indongo wasn’t trying to psych Burns out during the face off or anything. It was pretty mild stuff.
“I am really looking forward to tomorrow night,” said Burns to Sky Sports News HQ.
I don’t know why but Burns and his promoter Eddie Hearn keep yapping about the Indongo fight being the biggest one of his career. I don’t see why this fight is any different than the other ones he’s had. It’s not as if Burns’ career wasn’t on the line in his recent fights. The only difference I can tell is that Indongo has more talent than the last 4 guys that Hearn has put in the ring with him. Burns’ opposition has been something awful in his last 4 fights since he was beaten by Omar Figueroa in 2015. Hearn backed Burns off from fighting the cream the light welterweight division, and he’s putting him in with the softer guys like Prince Ofotsu, Josh King, Michele Di Rocco and Kiryl Relikh.
“For me all the hard work is done, that’s the hard part, the weight is made and I can concentrate fully on the fight now,” said Burns.
I hope Burns keeps it clean inside the ring on Saturday night when he gets in there with the 34-year-old Indongo. There’s going to be a mess of boxing fans that will be showing up in Glasgow for this fight, and they want to see the fight conducted under the Marquis of Queensbury rules. Burns can really make a fight ugly when he starts to hold, and throw his wild shots, which often end up in the back of his opponents’ heads.
Burns also puts his opponents in arm bars every now and then to keep them from throwing punches. The biggest thing is the holding and the running that Burns does. It’s hard to watch him fight sometimes because it’s pure spoiling tactics at times. Burns used to do more fighting when he was younger. Nowadays, I see Burns doing a lot of running and tying up his opponents. It’s so ugly to watch for me.
On Saturday, I think Burns is going to be spoiling something fierce against Indongo, because this is a guy that could poleaxe him if he lands one of his hard left hands to the head. Burns’ chin is no better than Eduard Troyanovsky, the last fighter that Indongo fought. We saw what happened in that fight.
“As long as I win that is the main thing. This is the biggest fight in my career in my eyes,” said Burns about the Indongo fight.
Burns is still talking about the Indongo fight being the biggest fight of his career, blah-blah-blah. I hope Burns doesn’t come up with the same line for his next fight after Indongo. It’ll get really tiresome if Burns keeps blabbering the same thing about it being the biggest fight of his career, as if all fights aren’t important. I hate to drizzle on Burns’ parade, but ALL fights are important no matter what stage. If Burns was whipped by Relikh in his last fight, it sure as heck would have been a real buzz-kill for his boxing career.
I don’t know what Hearn would have done if Burns lost that fight. He almost did though. If Relikh had started fighting hard in the first 6 rounds instead of the last 6, he would have won the fight, because he was the better fighter once he cranked up his offense. Relikh just didn’t have the experience to know that he needed to attack Burns like crazy in the ENTIRE fight, not just the last 6 rounds. Relikh’s trainer Ricky Hatton should have put more of a fire under his backside in the early going to get him to fight hard.
Gerald Washington volunteers to face Dillian Whyte
6’7” former heavyweight world title challenger Gerald Washington (18-1-1, 12 KOs) has volunteered to face #4 WBC Dillian Wyte (20-1, 15 KOs) in his next fight. Whyte, 29, will be headlining his own card on June 3 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Washington, 34, says he’ll take that fight, which could be a World Boxing Council heavyweight title eliminator promoter Eddie Hearn is able to swing a deal with the WBC.
“If it gets me to where I want to go, then I’m willing to do anything,” said Washington to skysports.com. “I want a tough fight that will propel me back into a world title fight, that’s my goal.”
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the fight against Whyte if I were Washington. I don’t think Hearn will want to go in that direction when looking for opponents for Whyte to fight, especially now that Washington is sparring with Wladimir Klitschko. The last thing that Hearn needs is for a new and improved Washington to fight Whyte and expose him. Whyte has problems with tall fighters. We saw that in his loss to Anthony Joshua 2 years ago.
Whyte has won his last 4 fights since then, but a lot of boxing fans thought he lost his last contest against Dereck Chisora last December. Boxing News 24 scored that fight in favor or Chisora. Whyte does not look like he’s improved since he started his pro career 2011. He looks way, way worse. Putting Whyte in with Washington would be a total disaster in my opinion. Washington would box Whyte’s ears off all night long.
“Dillian is a scrapper that likes to fight, and he’s a great fighter. He’s a tough guy that had a good fight with Anthony Joshua. But he’s the same as me – we’re learning on the job,” said Washington.
I definitely don’t see Hearn letting Whyte fight Washington in an eliminator fight. The only guy I see Washington fighting from that part of the world is someone like Dave Allen. I could see that fight happening, but no way do I see Washington being allowed anywhere near Whyte. He’s too close to getting a nice payday against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. My guess is Hearn will work it out with the WBC to have Whyte fight #11 WBC Johann Duhaupas or #13 Eric Molina for the WBC heavyweight eliminator. Those are 2 relatively safe opponents for Whyte.
