Ricky Burns

[ThereByTheGrace]

This time 7/8 months ago he was a WBO Champion going into a massive fight with the highly rated Terence Crawford.

Ok, fair enough he lost convincingly, then tried to go down the WBC route in June, losing again what was a closer fight to Zlaticanin (although we never got to see a few rounds).

Now, he is fighting in an 8 rounder tonight in Leeds supporting a first time main eventer. What is going on? In my opinion, Burns seems to be the only fighter who jumped ship from Allegedly to Matchroom and went backwards. He has went from 3-4 years of World Title fights to nowhere under Hearn, who seems more interested in Kevin Mitchell and Anthony Crolla at Lightweight (neither have won World Titles or fought at Burns level).

The guy can fill arenas up here with the support of Simmons, Butcher, Brophy and Limond (and maybe Butcher aswell), so why take him down to Leeds and fight there?

I suspect if Burns wins tonight, it will be Limond - Burns for the British and Commonwealth early next year, where else can he go? If he loses, he might as well chuck it tonight.

[handsofstone]

Burns hasnt really impressed me since the Mitchell win and he's shown me nothing since then to suggest he can still box at the highest level,the rounds that he has won since then have all been rallying rounds where he's had to show grit to get back into the fights like with Gonzalez and Beltran,and he barely won a clear round against Crawford or Zlaticanin so he's never dominated or looked comfortably in control since the Moses and Katsidis fights

I hope im wrong and the move up to LWW will benefit him and he could look explosive tonight against Lepelley just to do his confidence some good because since he KO'd Kevin he's never had that

[lefty]

This time 7/8 months ago he was a WBO Champion going into a massive fight with the highly rated Terence Crawford.

Ok, fair enough he lost convincingly, then tried to go down the WBC route in June, losing again what was a closer fight to Zlaticanin (although we never got to see a few rounds).

Now, he is fighting in an 8 rounder tonight in Leeds supporting a first time main eventer. What is going on? In my opinion, Burns seems to be the only fighter who jumped ship from Allegedly to Matchroom and went backwards. He has went from 3-4 years of World Title fights to nowhere under Hearn, who seems more interested in Kevin Mitchell and Anthony Crolla at Lightweight (neither have won World Titles or fought at Burns level).

The guy can fill arenas up here with the support of Simmons, Butcher, Brophy and Limond (and maybe Butcher aswell), so why take him down to Leeds and fight there?

I suspect if Burns wins tonight, it will be Limond - Burns for the British and Commonwealth early next year, where else can he go? If he loses, he might as well chuck it tonight.

Where do you get the impression that Hearn has been more interested in Mitchell and Crolla? That seems a baffling one to me. There was a few big shows headlined by ricky in scotland. The problem is he lost or looked like crap.

[ShadrachSimmo]

Burns and Hearns have to be realistic with where his career goes from here.

Talk of world titles will no doubt follow a victory tonight. The Limond fight would be huge up here it's not a bad shout. Right now they're on a similar level in my opinion.

[ProMayhem]

Blaming the strain of getting down to lightweight as the reason of his poor performances! Just looks too defensive and seems to have no game plan in recent fights.

[Roman7]

Ricky is finished , should never of left the wee man nelson who did a great job

[expe]

Ricky is finished , should never of left the wee man nelson who did a great job

That's the first and probably the last time Billy has ever been called wee lol

[whiskey]

He's pretty much finished and will not win anything of note at light-welter.

I forecast Limmond fight then that's it. Or he will be fed to the others in the Matchroom stable.

[tony1234]

Burns hasn't been the same since he had his jaw smashed

[forcefraser]

Allegedly fed him the usual WBO lambs. When he started fighting decent opponents he came unstuck. I like the guy, but you have to be honest.

[Loftgroov]

Shot to sh1t. Sadly.

[denzil1970]

Fw made a good world champion , Eddie messed the job up

[JimJim2009]

Based on recent form Limond beats Burns. I'd make Burns vs Scot Harrison whilst its still capable of shifting tickets. Should give both guys a decent payday and even though both have seen better days it would probably be a good scrap with a fantastic atmosphere.

There's only so many times you can put Ricky out against hand-picked opponents on somebody else's undercard, he is not looking good and arguably harms his reputation with each subsequent bad performance. Before last night's fight, him and his people were talking about how the move up to light welter was vital, and how staying at lightweight was the reason for his poor performances. Unbelievably, after the fight they started talking about going back down to lightweight and how if they do it properly he will improve !!! I wish Ricky all the best but there's diminishing credibility there - excuse after excuse. They are clutching at straws and Ricky needs somebody to tell him how it is, not to keep bullsxxting him and leading him on. The lad needs straight advice. You can see Jim Watt is pained with seeing Ricky's career in this tailspin, he is diplomatic with his words but you can read between the lines, he is basically saying give it up Ricky you are embarrassing yourself.

I also felt the post-fight comments about how it was the first time he'd ever made the weight properly was disrespectful to Billy Nelson. With all due respect, under Billy Nelson, Ricky Burns was a two time world champ, you're not telling me this is the first time Ricky has made the weight properly.

I once read a sad tale about how one of the early national lottery winners blew the entire lot, ended up broke, and then spent every last penny of his benefit money on the lottery, hoping beyond hope to win it again. This reminds me of Ricky's plight a bit - he was never meant to be a world champ but he did it at two different weights but you only have so long at the top and he is desperately trying everything to turn back the clock, he's changed promoters, trainer, gym, weight division and now apparently he's returning to lightweight. Based on his performances he's not what he was by a long stretch. Eddie could dig up even worse opponents to try and create a façade of a winning streak but what would be the point ?

[lefty]

Based on recent form Limond beats Burns. I'd make Burns vs Scot Harrison whilst its still capable of shifting tickets. Should give both guys a decent payday and even though both have seen better days it would probably be a good scrap with a fantastic atmosphere.

There's only so many times you can put Ricky out against hand-picked opponents on somebody else's undercard, he is not looking good and arguably harms his reputation with each subsequent bad performance. Before last night's fight, him and his people were talking about how the move up to light welter was vital, and how staying at lightweight was the reason for his poor performances. Unbelievably, after the fight they started talking about going back down to lightweight and how if they do it properly he will improve !!! I wish Ricky all the best but there's diminishing credibility there - excuse after excuse. They are clutching at straws and Ricky needs somebody to tell him how it is, not to keep bullsxxting him and leading him on. The lad needs straight advice. You can see Jim Watt is pained with seeing Ricky's career in this tailspin, he is diplomatic with his words but you can read between the lines, he is basically saying give it up Ricky you are embarrassing yourself.

I also felt the post-fight comments about how it was the first time he'd ever made the weight properly was disrespectful to Billy Nelson. With all due respect, under Billy Nelson, Ricky Burns was a two time world champ, you're not telling me this is the first time Ricky has made the weight properly.

I once read a sad tale about how one of the early national lottery winners blew the entire lot, ended up broke, and then spent every last penny of his benefit money on the lottery, hoping beyond hope to win it again. This reminds me of Ricky's plight a bit - he was never meant to be a world champ but he did it at two different weights but you only have so long at the top and he is desperately trying everything to turn back the clock, he's changed promoters, trainer, gym, weight division and now apparently he's returning to lightweight. Based on his performances he's not what he was by a long stretch. Eddie could dig up even worse opponents to try and create a façade of a winning streak but what would be the point ?

God that last paragraph about the lottery winner is depressing. That wasnt the chav fella was it?

[littlepug]

Don't think he's finished he's been an overachiever that's all, but that doesn't mean he can't overachieve again given the right fights. The thing that does my head in is this trend of moving up in weight or changing trainers when they lose a fight like its some kind of magic formula

[gobbles]

Allegedly fed him the usual WBO lambs. When he started fighting decent opponents he came unstuck. I like the guy, but you have to be honest.

His last three opponents under Warren were Katsidis (who in the previous 12 months had knocked down Marquez and given Guerrero a tough fight), Paulus Moses (a former WBA champion who is 6-0 since) and Kevin Mitchell. Hardly the "WBO lambs".

[littlepug]

Another overlooked win was graham earl who was 22-0 at the time and burns was only 8-0

[TheCobra]

Looks shot to me. It's sad but it just looks like it's all gone from him, all the timing, momentum in his career, confidence, shot-taking ability. He looks shaky in there and looks bereft of ideas or any timing.

He's reminding me a bit of Rendall Munroe, with Rendall the same seemed to happen in that it just seemed to go from him within a short space of time and then he couldn't seem to find that timing in his boxing or get any momentum back, like his moment had just gone. It looks the same with Ricky, it's just left him, he looks shot.

[ScottDetonator]

Ricky looks ready to be beat again. I can't understand the move up in weight. Looked terrible Saturday night. Don't see him doing anything to be fair.

[crusader]

I can't understand the move up in weight.

Maybe for a mental boost? At least then he could partially attribute his performance against DZ to the weight, even if it was really a non-factor.

I thought he looked slightly flabby at 135, so I don't think 140 is his optimal weight.

[expe]

I also felt the post-fight comments about how it was the first time he'd ever made the weight properly was disrespectful to Billy Nelson. With all due respect, under Billy Nelson, Ricky Burns was a two time world champ, you're not telling me this is the first time Ricky has made the weight properly.

It's the first time he's worked with a dietician to make the weight, in the past I think Ricky did his diet himself, watching what he was eating then cutting down closer to the fight. It depends whether you think you need a dietician or nutrionist to make weight properly, but judging by the shape he was in at 10st on Saturday, getting back down to lightweight shouldn't be a problem, to be honest he looked like he could make super feather again, seemed to be carrying a lot of excess weight.

[magnus]

I agree about the weight, it looks like all the extra went straight to his waistline.

[stujones]

Can't have done alot for Burns' confidence when he spoke about making LIGHT WELTER properly next time and his coach saying he's no Light welter.

[Bodyshot3]

The write-ups seem to be pretty unanimous.....it was a hard night's work against a man who should be a couple of levels below him and the move-up in weight and change of trainer are not the magic wands Ricky thought they would be.

The guy has had a great career but it has also been properly tough.....Gomez, Earl, Johanneson and Arthur all-faced before he even got the dubious pleasure of fighting Martinez for the world title. That's a lot of hard nights to take.

And I am not buying the idea that his WBO reign was some kind of cake-walk against hopeless contenders.....Moses and Mitchell were quality operators (especially Moses) and Cook's implosion was highly unexpected. Granted, there's the odd gimme in there, like Evensen and Lareya....but basically some good people wanted Ricky's title.

I wish Ricky well and hope he calls it quits.

[JimJim2009]

I once read a sad tale about how one of the early national lottery winners blew the entire lot, ended up broke, and then spent every last penny of his benefit money on the lottery, hoping beyond hope to win it again. This reminds me of Ricky's plight a bit - he was never meant to be a world champ but he did it at two different weights but you only have so long at the top and he is desperately trying everything to turn back the clock, he's changed promoters, trainer, gym, weight division and now apparently he's returning to lightweight. Based on his performances he's not what he was by a long stretch. Eddie could dig up even worse opponents to try and create a façade of a winning streak but what would be the point ?[/quote]
God that last paragraph about the lottery winner is depressing. That wasnt the chav fella was it?[/quote]

Yep, I think it was - the guy who put on several stones while he was at it.