BoxRec

Ricky Burns will face British Lightweight Champion, Graham Earl, at Wembley Conference Centre on Friday night.

The 21 year old from Coatbridge has taken the fight at 48 hours notice and is seen as a warm up opponent for Earl in what is a 12 round non-title fight ahead of the champion's forthcoming defence against Kevin Bennett.

26 year old Earl is unbeaten in 22, but hasn't fought since last July when he secured a stoppage win over Steve Murray. Previous to that he had two controversial wins over Bobby Vanzie, but there's no doubting Earl's pedigree at domestic level.

Burns has won all nine of his fights to date and the youngster has nothing to lose and everything to gain by fighting Earl, with the the possibility of catapulting himself onto the domestic stage if he can cause an upset. The last Scot to fight a British Champion was John Simpson and we all know how close he came to upseting boxing's apple cart.

And if Burns can take Earl the distance a surprise could well be on the cards. Stamina will be a big factor, with Burns only once having fought over eight rounds to date with his other bouts being four and six rounders.


Its a big step up for ricky who is 9-0 , he is such a great talent and if he takes a bad beating here i hope it doesnt put him off how use think he will do???

12 rounds non-title?

god knows mate i took the info from scottish boxing maybe they ment to put 10 round non title>>>?? you seen burns anyway what you think???

This, i think, will be Rickys first 12 or 10 rounder too and i think maybe his first fight outside of Scotland?

At this stage in his career hes came up the usual way for modern day Scottish boxers, a few fights at the St Andrews Club, a couple of dinners hows and a few undercard slots on Scott Harrison fights. I remember seeing him in what was peobably his first pro fight and perhaps unsurprisingly he still looked very amateur in style. Id be interested in seeing how much his style has adapted to the pro game especially against a much more experienced campaigner in Earl.

Hes gone the distance in most of his fights so far, obviously mostly 6 rounders, but the odd 8 rounder in there, so you would have to suppose his stamina would be ok if it is a ten rounder.

As much as Id love to see him win this, I really cant see it happening.

But like you say ped, hes really got nothing to lose. I just hope that if he does lose this he doesnt let it effect him too badly. It makes a change to see such a relatively inexperienced guy going in against a champ, even if it is a non title fight. so no matter what the result here's hoping Ricky can take a lot from this fight as regards a learning experience.

just to let anyone who wanted to know its a 8 rounder and thats the only reason he took this fight that early in his career.

ricky burns can bang a bit and he had alot of amatuer bouts and boxed
all over the world as a amatuer with a very good knock out percentage
so he has a punchers chance

ricky burns can bang a bit and he had alot of amatuer bouts and boxed
all over the world as a amatuer with a very good knock out percentage
so he has a punchers chance

ricky burns can bang a bit and he had alot of amatuer bouts and boxed
all over the world as a amatuer with a very good knock out percentage
so he has a punchers chance