Burns withdraws from tonights fight

Ricky Burns has been forced to withdraw from tonight's Meadowbank Sports Centre bill after suffering from flu.

Burns' stablemate Martin Watson will now face Ghana's George Ashie who is preparing for a third opponent after he was originally scheduled to fight Alex Arthur and then Burns.

Arthur tops the bill in his hometown, defending his European super-featherweight title against Sergey Gulyakevich. Ashie was originally set to challenge Arthur for the Commonwealth championship but once the European Boxing Union made it clear that Arthur would be stripped of his belt if he did not defend against the Belarussian mandatory contender promoters Sports Network changed the main event.

Watson was due to fight Frenchman Mounir Guebbas but will tackle Ashie with the boisterous Coatbridge supporters cheering him on. Ironically this will be Watson's second fight in quick succession after he dominated Ryan Barrett over ten rounds to win the decision at the beginning of the month. That victory was Watson's first ring appearance in nine months and trainer Robert Bannan had repeatedly voiced his frustration at the lack of willing opponents for his charge during that long interval.

Regarding Burns withdrawal Bannan said, “It's a set back because he was looking forward to this fight and he was training very hard for it. I can assure you it's genuine, if you looked at his face today he was as white as a sheet. Hopefully he will be able to get a fight on the card in Northern Ireland (20th May) but it is up to the promoters.”

Bannan also gave his backing to Scott Harrison ahead of his WBO featherweight title defence against Mexico's Martin Honorio on 20th May in Belfast.

He said, “He's been a great champion for Scotland, if he had been English they would have been proud of the number of times he has defended his title.”

britishboxing.net