Where next for Ricky Burns?

During our review of “Who’s Fooling Who?” we completely omitted Ricky Burns from our report. I honestly feel that I couldn’t fully discuss the “Where next?” section for him within a paragraph or two. The likeable Scotsman seems as though he has been at a career crossroads since he moved to Matchroom sport. He looked good, while unspectacular in stopping Josh King for the WBO Inter-Continental title as chief-support on the bill.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where things went wrong for the “Rickster” who enjoyed some fantastic nights under the stewardship of Frank Warren. This is man who sold out arenas in his own country and no matter what happens in the future, he will always be a 2 weight world champion.

His split with Warren and subsequent legal problems have been well documented but he appears to retain the fire for boxing and a genuine belief he will regain a world title soon. Whether he will ever reach the pinnacle again is up for debate so we take a look at several potential options and how these may pan out.

Terry Flanagan – With last night’s win over Josh King, Burns won the WBO Inter-Continental title and moved closer to a mandatory shot at Manchester’s Flanagan. Basically, given the reluctance of Hearn and Warren to cooperate, a mandated matchup between these two is the only chance of this happening. Which is a shame. If it were to happen, I believe it would generate interest and would be tricky to call. Neither man is noted for one punch power but I’d favour Flanagan who’s star seems to be on the rise.

Kevin Mitchell – This would be a fantastic rematch, especially if one of the world titles was on the line, but it is another potential domestic dust up that we are unlikely to see. Following his defeat to Terence Crawford, Burns moved south to join up with Peter Sims and is now a gym mate of Mitchell. Unless something drastic happens in the near future Burns will retire with his TKO victory unavenged. I feel that could have changed if they did get to share a ring again.

Anthony Crolla / Darleys Perez winner – This would appear to be the biggest domestic bout available to Burns, that could realistically happen. From ringside, it appeared Crolla won the first fight comfortably but the rematch is by no means a given. Domestic boxing matches for world titles tend to generate great interest in the UK so this could be an easy sell for Eddie Hearn to make and would be a fantastic first title defence if Crolla is successful. He has been rumoured to return on the undercard of Quigg Frampton in Manchester in February 2016 which would be a massive chief support. Derry Matthews is the WBA interim champion so could feasibly face the winner next, however there have been strong rumours that Queensberry Promotions are looking to keep him in house against Flanagan early next year.

Jorge Linares - Current WBC champion, the Venezuealan has proven he is willing to travel to defend his title. He stopped Kevin Mitchell in a recent classic on the Kell Brook vs Frankie Gavin bill in May. The nature of their first match, and Mitchell's high WBC ranking, mean that if Linares were to comeback to the UK it would likely be for a rematch. This might be good news for Burns as I feel Linares would be too good for the 2015 (or 2016) version of the Scot, as he probably would be for most lightweights in the world.