Dejan Zlaticanin

(As you can see by the photo, there’s a slight size disparity between Ricky Burns and his opponent Dejan Zlaticanin) By Scott Gilfoid: Ricky Burns (36-3-1, 11 KO’s) and his little known fringe contender opponent Dejan Zlaticanin (18-0, 13 KO’s) both made weight on Thursday for their WBC lightweight eliminator bout for Friday night at the Braehead Arena, in Glasgow, Scotland. #15 WBC Burns weighed in at a slender 134.75 pounds.

At 5’10”, Burns looked too thin for the weight. His opponent, #13 WBC Zlaticanin weighed in slightly less at 134, but looked very short. Indeed, Zlaticanin appears to be at least 4 inches shorter than Burns. It this good match-making?

This has got to be one of the oddest eliminator bouts I’ve ever seen before, because of how low ranked both fighters are. I mean, Burns is ranked #15 by the WBC, while Zlaticanin is ranked #13 WBC. In other words, both Burns and Zlaticanin are bottom dwellers in the WBC’s rankings, yet somehow their fight is a WBC eliminator bout.

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By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Eddie Hearn isn’t saying that his fighter former two division world champion Ricky Burns (36-3-1, 11 KO’s) isn’t ready for the scrap heap as he heads into fight this Friday night against the hand-picked #13 WBC Dejan Zlaticanin (18-0, 13 KO’s), but at the same time if he loses to this little known guy, his career would be pretty much over.

With Hearn digging up a guy ranked near the bottom of the WBC’s rankings in Zlaticanin, it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the narrow shoulders of the 31-year-old Burns, because if he loses to this guy where in the heck can Hearn move Burns? He’s a chess piece without anywhere to go if he gets whipped by Zlaticanin like he did in his last two fights by Terence Crawford and Raymundo Beltran.

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By Scott Gilfoid: With three consecutive poor performances under his belt, #5 WBO Ricky Burns (36-3-1, 11 KO’s) is excited about getting back in the ring this month to face little known fringe contender #13 WBC Dejan Zlaticanin (18-0, 13 KO’s) for the vacant WBC International lightweight title in their fight on June 27th at the Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Burns has changed trainers from Billy Nelson to Tony Sims in hopes things will be better for him. It’s a classic move for Burns, as many fighters tend to change trainers once they start struggling in their careers, and it’s rare that the new trainers are able to do any better than the previous ones.

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By Scott Gilfoid: #5 WBO Ricky Burns (36-3-1, 11 KO’s) will be fighting little known #9 WBC Dejan Zlaticanin (18-0, 13 KO’s) next month on June 27th in a WBC lightweight title eliminator and also for the vacant WBC International lightweight title at the Braehead Arena, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Burns, 31, isn’t ranked in the top 15 by the World Boxing Council, so it’s interesting that his promoter Eddie Hearn was still able to wrangle a deal to have a fight between him and the non-top 5 ranked Zlaticanin as a WBC eliminator bout to get a chance to get locked in as the mandatory challenger to face WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa. Ideally, you like to see eliminator bouts set up between two fighters that are at least ranked in the top 5 by the sanctioning body that has agreed to the eliminator. That’s not what we have here.

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