BoxRec

On the upside it should clearly indicate to Ricky Burns how unwise it would be to take the fight.

Losing a fight doesn't make it unwise. If everyone took that view there would be no fights at all ffs. He's supposed to be a world champion not vulnerable young kid.

Trojans44 wrote:Losing a fight doesn't make it unwise. If everyone took that view there would be no fights at all ffs. He's supposed to be a world champion not vulnerable young kid.

well said

fasteddie wrote:

Trojans44 wrote:Losing a fight doesn't make it unwise. If everyone took that view there would be no fights at all ffs. He's supposed to be a world champion not vulnerable young kid.

well said

Well said but only from a fans point of view - or at least in this case.

Broner will/would destroy both of them. Burns has a family to provide for and probably has a maximum of 3 years worth of decent paydays left in him - then it's done, no more decent dough till he coughs it in all likelyhood. He's got a belt and can make good money defending it in fights he should win, or can risk it in other unification's against Vasquez and the winner of Abril v Bogere.

Look as a fan I want Burns, Broner, Vasquez and the winner of the WBA fight to face each other. In fact that's not quite true, what I really want is all the world governing bodies scrapped and replaced with one respected, legitimate, well run, world wide organsiation - though I'm losing hope for this! In this situation proper top ten guys fighting each other would be good money fights, it's not as if there would be that many world title fights to keep the TV companies happy otherwise!

I have no problem with what is happening here. Rees/Hearn are rolling the dice - they don't have much in the way of options and Rees is getting on. Rees isn't a mandatory and even if he was it could take Donkeys to force as the WBA (or whoever) will just do what suits them anyway. Hearn can't justify bringing a champion over here for Rees - Gavin just doesn't bring in the dough to make this a sensible business decision, plus Hearn is putting his serious cash behind his 'big' names - all promoters do this, doesn't make him a c**t. If Rees can make the fight competitive then he might get another decent payday from it. I think he'll get ruined and his future earnings will likely be peanuts as a result but what else can they do? What other options are there?

Burns/Warren are doing the sensible thing as well. It's not as if Burns is just fighting bums - Martinez, Katsidis, Moses and Mitchell are all good quality fights. They have the luxury of having a title in a weak division - thus most defences won't be huge risks as no governing body rates the other champions!!!!! So long as they make decent fights they will make decent money up here and sell tickets. I was happy with all the above fights - less so the African and the Columbian midget but guess what - I didn't go to these! Yes we can all cry that Burns isn't risking his health/career against the best but put yourself in his shoes, think about it as if it was your missus and kids you were earning for with a future outside boxing working in retail - be honest, what would you do? The selfish thing would be fighting Broner - the responsible family man might not.

I suppose much of this depends on what you make of Broner and the other champions. In my opinion Broner, while not perfect, makes mincemeat of Rees and Burns. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. Let's say Rees gets outclassed, dropped several times and doesn't make the halfway point or win a round. Where's that leave him? What's his next purse going to be?

It's easy to sit on our couches and demand the best vs the best (I want this too), but there is more to it than that. The problem is four governing bodies - not really Hearn, Warren, Burns, Rees, Broner or indeed George Groves!

Yes we can all cry that Burns isn't risking his health/career against the best but put yourself in his shoes, think about it as if it was your missus and kids you were earning for with a future outside boxing working in retail - be honest, what would you do? The selfish thing would be fighting Broner - the responsible family man might not.

lol you're acting like Broner would put him in a body bag ffs, he's supposed to be a world champion and what would be selfish about taking a career high payday for the biggest fight of your life after putting all of those hours,weeks,months,years into the gym and earning your place as one of the best in the division after being practically written off all those years ago?

nnothing selfish about that and your acting like his career would be finished if he lost

GreenLightning wrote:

Yes we can all cry that Burns isn't risking his health/career against the best but put yourself in his shoes, think about it as if it was your missus and kids you were earning for with a future outside boxing working in retail - be honest, what would you do? The selfish thing would be fighting Broner - the responsible family man might not.

lol you're acting like Broner would put him in a body bag ffs, he's supposed to be a world champion and what would be selfish about taking a career high payday for the biggest fight of your life after putting all of those hours,weeks,months,years into the gym and earning your place as one of the best in the division after being practically written off all those years ago?

nnothing selfish about that and your acting like his career would be finished if he lost

Comes down to a matter of opinion mate. I'm a huge Burns fan but I'm not wearing the rose tinted here. In my opinion Burns would get the De Marco treatment vs Broner - not that I don't rate Burns, I just think Broner will be something a bit special.

Just my opinion but say this turns out to be the case? If Burns gets ruined vs Broner his future pay days will be peanuts. True if he goes the 12, makes a fight of it and looses he can still earn well afterwards - problem is I think it'll end much worse than this.......

It would be selfish because every fighter (or certainly many) want to fight the best. However earning £250,000 to get a brutal beating isn't cash common sense when you could earn £90,000/£100,000 in each of your next five fights fighting good quality guys who you 'should' beat. The guy is providing for his family, he needs to squeeze the maximum dough out of the next three years, not three months.

Don't get me wrong - I'd love the fight to happen, but I'm not going to start crying if it doesn't - I can understand why.

PS - He isn't a bona fida world champion - neither are Cleverly, Froch, etc for me. The best in the division is what a champion should be. Wlad, Ward, Mayweather - they are 'THE' men at their weights. WBC, WBO, IBF, WBA are just a step up from the IBA, etc.

Good match up this, I think looking at it you can see it as a good time for both to have the fight. In theory Broner is possibly still a bit raw so perhaps a good time for Rees to challenge him, and also from Broners point of view gets him a bit more marketing over here before a potential Burns fight and also Rees is experienced so good to challenge against him. Really hope Rees can pull it off but obviously looks to be a tough ask.

Broner is about 2 weight divisions bigger by the time he gets in the ring. We’ll hear about how great he is and how he’s the future of boxing when really he’s just beating up smaller men.

And on the off chance he doesn’t make the weight he’ll just have the rules changed.

Hope Gavin gets a great pay day and wins. But the dice have been heavily loaded in Broner’s favour and will be for the next decade.

Ten years from now we’ll all be getting irritated by new members coming on and telling us how Broner is the greatest fighter of all time.