Interview with Ricky Burns

Moving from his victory over Michael Gomez, Ricky ‘Rickster’ Burns (26-2) is looking to show his credentials as a worthwhile champion by taking on Belfast’s Kevin O’Hara at the usual surroundings of the Bellahouston sports centre in Glasgow on June 19th.

The fight happens the night before David Haye attempts to become the ‘giant slayer‘, and while most of the boxing media will be focusing on the fight in Germnay,Burns will attempt to make headlines of his own
“I never go out to with the intention of knocking someone out. If it happens it’s a bonus, I train for every fight the same. I train for a hard 12 round fight, but I think I will have too much in the locker for O’Hara come fight night”

Coming into this fight, Burns was last in action against Michael Gomez. In that fight some people think that he gave his best performance of his career to date. I asked if he could contribute that performance anything in particular “Since I switched trainer (to Billy Nelson) we have been working more on sitting down into punches more. Everybody knew I could box on the back foot, but nobody knew I could go and have a war with people. There are times were you have to stand your ground and things are coming together nicely”

In the run up to the fight Gomez was seen to be doing his usual pre fight antics, something that the Rickster expected and by his own admission didn’t really faze him on the night “I just blocked that out my mind. See the way he is at press confrences,that was expected and it didn’t intimidate me .I told people at the time it wasn’t working with me, and I do my talking in the ring“


In his corner for the fight is the familiar face of Billy Nelson, who informs us he doesn’t believe that his fighter’s best performance was not against Gomez, but instead Yakubu Amidu “I think his defence against Amidu, as he was possibly a more live opponent. He came into this fight with 17 wins and 16 knockouts, so he was more a big puncher”

He adds “I thought Ricky’s movement was good, and he proved that he has sufficient power to hurt somebody with a single shot now”

The qualified social worker adds what they have been working on since the Gomez fight “Since we have been back in the gym, we have working on his combinations. I noticed in the fight Ricky was throwing combinations in three or fours, but to reach the very top you need to throw more punches than that.“

Having switched to Billy Nelson over a few years ago, I can see the improvement in the Coatbridge fighter. I put this to Nelson and asked what improvement’s he has seen “When Ricky came to me he was just a box and mover. He was moving on the back foot. I told him he wouldn’t win a title of any distinction .But he has improved a 100%“

Having worked beside Peter Harrison previously, Nelson has had the experience of helping a fighter to becoming a world champion (Scott Harrison).He hopes to use this experience to help burns fulfil his potential “It will help Ricky and it will help everybody who steps in my gym. I was fortunate enough to be associated with the best trainer in my eyes Britain has ever produced .If you look at what Peter Harrison has achieved with the small group of fighters he has worked with .The guy is a legend as a trainer“

Should he come through this fight, Burns has a few big potential big domestic bouts. The main one on his radar would be against Dagenham’s Kevin Mitchell, who has a WBO (the same organisation were Burns currently holds a 4th place ranking) championship shot against Puerto Rican Roman Martinez sometime in July.

So while Kevin O'hara stands in his way for his next fight its fair to say there is a lot more at steak for the Coatbridge fighter than his Commonwealth belt.