Burns vs. Vazquez March 16th fight in doubt

By Boxing News - 03/02/2013 - Comments

vazquez43By Scott Gilfoid: The March 16th unification bout between IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez and WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns is reportedly in doubt again. There are rumors that the fight still hasn’t been finalized. Eastsideboxing.com put out a report recently showing a photo of what appears to be a signed agreement from Vazquez along with a photo of Vazquez with his trainer Javier Capetillo holding the agreement. However, the rumors just don’t seem to be going away about this fight still not being finalized.

The good news is if the fight doesn’t happen, Burns dodges a serious bullet in the form of Vazquez because this is really a toss-up fight that could go either way. If Burns doesn’t have to fight Vazquez, then Burns can then accept a fight offered to him from Golden Boy Promotions to face WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner in a unification bout on June 15th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a much better fight for Burns than Vazquez because it would give Burns a big payday. If he’s going to risk his backside fighting a unification bout, then Burns should get the most money possible. Broner wants the fight with Burns, so it’s not like he’d have to drag Broner kicking and screaming into the ring to face him.

It’s still a good deal for Burns if he chooses not to face Broner, because then Burns can continue to fight non-threatening guys like Kevin Mitchell, and that way he can increase the amount of time he holds onto his World Boxing Organization 135 lb title. Vazquez and Broner are really risky fights for someone like Burns, and I can definitely see Burns losing both of those fights.

If Burns-Vazquez fails to take place on March 16th at the Wembley Arena then that card is going to be hurting in a big way. There’s talk of Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves possibly signing with Matchroom Sport, and if that happens then you’ve got to imagine that he’ll be off the March 16th card.

That would leave WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly vs. Robin Krasniqi as being the only fight involving a big name on the card, if you want to call Cleverly a big name. The remainder of the undercard are domestic level fighters once you remove Groves and Burns-Vazquez from the card.



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