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March 1 will be the most important day in the career of two-weight world champion Ricky Burns as the Scot meets the challenge of America’s Terence Crawford at Glasgow’s Scottish Exhibition Centre in defense of the WBO lightweight title.
Burns, 36-2-1 (11), did a genuine tightrope act in 2013, when the level of competition he faced went up a notch in the form of Jose Gonzalez and Raymundo Beltran.
Gonzalez came into his challenge to Burns last May as an 22-0 undefeated fighter and spent the first seven rounds taking “The Rickster” to school. Burns could do absolutely nothing with the Puerto Rican puncher and was badly hurt on several occasions.
But Burns did bite down hard and was miraculously saved when Gonzalez injured a wrist and promptly fell apart, retiring after the eighth round, otherwise it’s very unlikely the Coatsbridge man would still be wearing the WBO crown.
In August, Burns had another difficult defense, this time against Mexico’s Beltran, one of Manny Pacquiao’s chief sparring partners.
Trouble came to the champ early as he suffered a broken jaw in just the second round. Amazingly, Burns made it through the remainder of the fight with the horrible injury, showing incredible toughness.
The bout was a action-filled contest that saw Burns hitting the canvas in the eighth and he appeared to lose the fight in the eyes of many observers but kept the title on a split draw after 12 rounds.
Now comes the defense against unbeaten NABO titlist Crawford, a native of Omaha, Nebraska.
Crawford, 22-0 (16), has drawn widespread praise in the states as a lethal combination of speed, power and durability. Is Burns’ time up?
The American faced a long list of the usual suspects for the first four years of his career, but was stepped up in 2013; defeating Breidis Prescott, Alejandro Sanabria and most recently, Andrey Klimov.
Burns, as opposed to Crawford, has definitely faced the better competition and the Scotsman’s ability to deal with adversity is beyond question. Also in his favor is the fact that he’s fighting at home and is used to the heightened media presence accompanying world title fights.
Burns has participated in eight world title bouts; Crawford has participated in none.
Crawford is four years younger than Burns at 26 and although a couple of inches shorter, has the longer reach. Will that matter once the bell rings?
Burns will probably look to keep Crawford at the end of the jab when he can dictate the pace and ideally pick off the challenger when Crawford tries to come closer.
If Ricky can do that consistently, he’ll win the fight and keep his title.
Crawford, as the visiting fighter, is almost certain to come gunning for the champion and will look to cut off the ring and get to grips with Burns. If he can narrow the distance and make Burns fight, the challenger has a chance on walking out of the arena with the WBO belt.
If Crawford lives up to the hype surrounding him, this should be a thrilling contest.
