By Tom Gray: Ricky Burns is all business in preparation for his WBO lightweight title defence against Paulus Moses at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow on March 10th.
Burns defeated Michael Katsidis by unanimous decision last November to capture the WBO interim title and was recently upgraded to full champion by the governing body. The Scottish warrior, three weeks into hard training, is already in superb condition and was gleaming with health as he spoke candidly about his future plans at Billy Nelson’s new training headquarters.
“Training is going well,” stated the 28 year old confidently. “We just finished sparring with Tyrone Nurse, who is preparing for Prizefighter, and that helped because our work was very intense. Next week I’ll be sparring with Paul Appleby, who fights for a Celtic title on the same card as myself and I believe Patrick Liam Walsh and Stephen Smith have agreed to come up to Scotland.”
Burns is his country’s first two weight world champion since Paul Weir achieved the same feat almost twenty years ago. The Coatbridge star is now firmly established as one of the best lightweights in the world but he will have to be on top of his game when he faces off against the experienced former WBA lightweight champion, Paulus Moses.
“We know Moses is a good boxer with a nice jab and a big right hand,” revealed Burns with respect. “He has nineteen knockouts in twenty eight victories, which shows he can punch. However, I’ve proven more than once that I can take a shot and I’m a good boxer myself. Also, if things aren’t going my way, at range, then I can stand there with the best in the division.”
Ricky continued; “I’ve always said I’m prepared to fight anyone and if I have any doubters, then hopefully I can prove them wrong again. I’ll be going out to start fast, like I always do, and if I get a sniff that he’s hurt then I’ll be looking to take him out. Having said that, we always prepare for twelve rounds hard rounds and the knockout is a bonus.”
British champion, Anthony Crolla, was mooted to be Burns’ opponent for March 10th but negotiations stalled and that bout fell through. Still, all is not lost, and an even bigger domestic showdown looms, should Ricky emerge victorious in his next outing.
“After the Katsidis win, a lot of fighters shot their mouths off and Kevin Mitchell has said he wants to fight,” hissed the champion. “The Mitchell fight is getting a huge amount of press and there is a chance that it could happen in the summer but my full attention is 100% on Paulus Moses."
When pushed further on the Mitchell subject Ricky responded in kind; “Kevin and I are the top two lightweights in Britain. We were meant to fight for the British title a couple of years ago but Kevin couldn’t make the weight, decided to move up, and now that I’ve beaten Katsidis, he said that he would like a crack at me.”
