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Saturday night sees a massive UK fight card at Liverpool’s Echo Arena, headlined by Ricky Burns’ WBO super feather title defense against a former owner of that belt, Nicky Cook.
This fight has an interesting genealogy as Cook, 30-2 (16), lost the crown in 2009 to Puerto Rican bomber Roman Martinez, who was himself shockingly upset by Burns in a thriller last year.
Burns, 31-2 (8), has since defended the crown twice against relatively unknown challengers Joseph Laryea and Andreas Evensen and should be getting, in the form of Cook, his toughest opponent since Martinez.
Since the Martinez loss, Cook sat out two years before coming back to outpoint journeyman Youssef Al Hamidi over six rounds in May.
After such a long time out and only six rounds under his belt, Cook may still be a few bouts away from a big fight but if the former European, British and Commonwealth featherweight champion can recapture the form of his glory years, Burns could be leaving Echo Arena without his title.
For Cook to pull off the upset, he’ll need to constantly move forward and pressure the taller Burns, taking away the champion’s height and reach advantages.
This will also put Cook into position to launch his most effective weapon, body punches, which could be the key to the fight.
But Burns gained a tremendous amount of experience in the Martinez fight, overcoming what were considered to be insurmountable odds to outfight the top man in the division at the time.
If that Ricky Burns shows up Saturday night in Liverpool, Cook will have to go back to the drawing board after another big loss.
Also on the bill is a mouth-watering clash at lightweight as ex-European and British ruler John Murray, 31-0 (18), squares off against former British and Commonwealth super feather supremo Kevin Mitchell, 31-1 (23), for the vacant WBO Intercontinental belt.
This is an especially big fight for Mitchell, as he’s coming off a third round stoppage loss at the hands of Michael Katsidis for the Interim WBO crown 14 months ago with no tune-up contests to get back into gear first.
Murray won the European trophy in May of last year against Gary Buckland before defending it twice, most recently against Karim El Quazghari in April.
Having been in the ring with Katsidis and Breidis Prescott, it’s Mitchell who has faced the better quality of opposition and will likely turn out to be a better boxer than Murray, although that may not come into play that much at Echo Arena.
This one should be a boxer vs. slugger matchup as Mitchell will likely look to box from a distance before getting in to work and getting out before Murray can return fire.
But Murray will bring the pressure and look for this one to turn into a head to head slugfest in the second half of the bout with the winner being whoever proves to be the more durable fighter.
There’s also an excellent rematch between light heavyweight upstart Tony Bellew, 15-0 (10), and veteran spoiler Ovill McKenzie, 18-10 (7), for the British and Commonwealth crowns.
Last December, Bellew had to climb off the canvas in the first two rounds before stopping McKenzie in the eighth and the rematch has become a bad blood grudge fest that’s sure to spill over into the ring.
Welterweight southpaw Frankie Gavin, 10-0 (8), is in a contest for the WBO Intercontinental belt with ex-pro footballer Curtis Woodhouse, 15-2 (10).
