Sky Sports commentator Johnny Nelson is confident that former two division world champion Ricky Burns (36-3-1, 11 KO’s) will come out on top this Friday night in his fight against #13 WBC Dejan Zlaticanin (18-0, 13 KO’s) at the Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Burns, who is coming off of a loss to Terence Crawford last March, has been saying that if he wins this fight on Friday, his promoter Eddie Hearn will set him up with a title shot against WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa. Burns is ranked only #15 by the WBC, so if Hearn is able to get him a title shot off of a win over #13 WBC Zlaticanin then it’s going to have to be an optional title defense by Figueroa.
“He [Burns] might not get another champion at getting back on the top of the ladder,” Nelson said to Skysports.com. “This will be his first step back up and I am sure he will beat Zlaticanin, probably on points, but I can’t wait to see the new Ricky Burns because at least he believes.”
The new Burns? He has a new trainer in Tony Sims, but it’s not likely that Sims has made a great deal of changes to his fighting style. At 31, Burns is pretty set in his ways and likely won’t be changing all that much.
Besides the Crawford, Burns has struggled against Raymundo Beltran and Jose Gonzales. Burns beat Gonzalez by a 9th round stoppage in May of last year, but it was far from an impressive performance. The Beltran fight could have been ruled a loss instead of a draw because it was not a good performance from Burns.
Burns will likely have no problems beating the inexperienced Zlaticanin. If Burns is correct in him getting a title shot against Figueroa later this year, he has a very good chance of winning that belt. With a win over Figueroa, Burns could have another long line of title defenses. He defended his WBO title 5 times.
