Burns-Figueroa only 18 days away

By Boxing News - 04/21/2015 - Comments

burns8oBy Scott Gilfoid: 32-year-old former two division world champion Ricky Burns (37-4-1, 11 KOs) will be back inside the ring 18 days from now against former WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa Jr. (24-0-1, 18 KOs) on May 9th at the State Farm Arena, in Hidalgo, Texas, USA.

This is a crossroads fight for Burns, as he’s lost two out of his last three fights and he’s looked absolutely terrible. Burns went from being one of the best fighters in the lightweight division to being a fringe level guy almost overnight. One second he’s beating the likes of Jose Gonzalez and then next he’s losing to some obscure bottom dweller named Dejan Zlaticanin.

Things are bad for Burns, and I’m not sure that they’re going to get any better with him facing a talent like Figueroa Jr. This is not a good match-up for Burns at this point in his career, and I’m surprised that he agreed to take the fight. This would have been a good fight for Burns before he was beaten by Terence Crawford and Zlaticanin, but not anymore. The Burns that lost to those fighters will very likely lose to Figueroa as well.

Burns has arguably lost 3 out of his last 4 fights because his draw against Raymundo Beltran looked to be a loss in my eyes, and the eyes of many boxing fans.
Burns’ promoter Eddie Hearn is usually very calculating about the fights he puts his guys in with. I mean, he often makes sure that his fighters have a great chance of winning the fight before he agrees to put it together.

There are exceptions though. We’re seeing that with Hearn fighter James DeGale facing American Andre Dirrell next month on May 23rd. But that fight is perceived as one that DeGale can win in Hearn’s eyes, and the eyes of a lot of UK fans. The Burns-Figueroa fight is one that looks to be a mismatch unless Burns can find the fountain of youth and turn himself back five years to an earlier stage of his career when things were going better for him.

The question here is why did Hearn match Burns with a dangerous young guy like Figueroa? Is Hearn cashing out with Burns by putting him in with the biggest fight that he can find and looking to make what money he can from that fight before casting him adrift with the tides? I don’t know but it looks bad because it’s such a mismatch on paper. You throw a fighter with three defeats in his last four fights into the ring with a young lion like Figueroa, and I see bad things happening for Burns. He’s not old, but he sure as heck is fighting like an old timer.

Burns was doing a great job with his career beating the guys that his former promoter was putting in with him. Granted, Burns wasn’t facing the dangerous guys that you see lurking in the lightweight pool nowadays, but he was putting together some decent wins over the likes of Kevin Mitchell and Michael Katsidis. I personally had Burns losing the fight to Katisidis, but that’s neither here nor there. But things started to turn sour for Burns when he was matched against the hard hitting Jose Gonzalez in May of 2013.

Burns took a real beating in that fight, and the only reason he got the win was because Gonzalez faded really badly and quit on his stool after the 9th round, complaining about a wrist injury. From that point on, Burns was just a shadow of his former self. He took a beating against Beltran in September 2013 and was given a gift draw in a fight where he only appeared to win 2 rounds at the most.

Then Burns lost to Crawford and Zlaticanin. Burns finally ended his losing streak when he beat little known 2nd tier fighter Alexandre Lepelley last October in a fight that was surprisingly competitive. I mean, Burns couldn’t even wipeout a guy that was brought in as a showcase fight for him. That was pretty bad. Now after one soft touch, Burns is being brought in with a guy that would have given him trouble at any point in his career in Figueroa. I think this fight has only one outcome with Burns losing badly.

I don’t know if Burns will retire if he loses. I heard him recently saying he’ll keep fighting. It would be sad if in the near future if Burns turns into a journeyman level fighter, and he’s still fighting.



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