Raymundo Beltran (28-6, 17 KO’s) will be WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’ next challenger and the two will be fighting on September 7th at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Beltran is promoted by Top Rank, and if Burns beats him, Burns could then be facing undefeated Top Rank promoted lightweight Terrence Crawford in 2014, if Burns agrees to take the fight.
That’s a big IF because Burns had chances to fight Adrien Broner two occasions and he chose not to. Crawford is at least as dangerous as Broner, if not more, and the way that Burns looked in his last fight against Jose Gonzalez last month, it would be a really tough fight for Burns against Crawford.
Beltran’s a good fighter, but he’s also been beat twice in the last couple of years in defeats against Luis Ramos Jr. and Sharif Bogere. Let’s not get it twisted about what this fight is all about. Burn’s promoter is clearly putting him in with a guy that they feel he can beat and won’t be much of a threat to beat him.
That’s understandable because Burns was on his way to losing his last fight against Jose Gonzalez until the Puerto Rican fighter ran out of gas in the 7th and was stopped in the 9th. That fight gave one the sense that Burns probably won’t be the WBO champion for too much longer unless his promoter Hearn is very careful with the guys he matches him up with.
Burns’ promoter Eddie Hearn said to ESPN, “This has always been a fight that stylistically makes sense. Beltran is hugely entertaining and tough opponent who is on a hot run and ranked impressively across governing bodies.”
The way that Hearn is describing Beltran it almost gives the impressive as if he’s defending his choice of opponent from the people who might criticize him or Burns for fighting Beltran.
It is what it is. We’re talking a safe fight for Burns. An unsafe fight would be Terrence Crawford, #1 WBO Sergio Thompson, Yuriorkis Gamboa, #2 WBO, Omar Figueroa, and Adrien Broner. I think all of them would beat Burns.
