Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is looking at potentially the end of his fighter WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’s 3-year reign as the World Boxing Organization 135 lb. champion when he steps inside the ring to fight the unbeaten but still largely untested Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) on March 1st at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.
This is a tougher fight than anything that Burns has faced before, and it’s coming at the wrong time with him after two tough fights against Jose Gonzalez and Raymundo Beltran. Burns had his jaw broken by Beltran last September in receiving a 12 round draw. It’s hard to see that fight and not think that Burns lucked out in getting a draw out of that. At best, Burns looked like he won 1 round of the fight. At worst, he appeared to be shutout completely by Beltran, who looked superior to him in every facet.
Barring any kind of re-injury to his jaw during training, WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO’s) will be back in the ring on March 1st against his mandatory challenger from America Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) in a fight at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. Burns is being pushed into this fight by the World Boxing Organization after they ordered the fight to take place next. Burns wanted to fight a rematch against Raymundo Beltran to clear up the mess from their fight last September that ended in a 12 round draw in Glasgow.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is reportedly hoping to put together a fight between #1 WBA, lightweight contender Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s), and his own fighter #1 WBO, Terence Crawford (21-0, 16 KO’s) as the co-feature on the Miguel Cotto vs. Delvin Rodriguez card on October 5th, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
29-year-old light welterweight Breidis Prescott (29-4, 20 KO’s) will be facing unbeaten lightweight fringe contender Terence Crawford (19-0, 15 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout on the undercard of the Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado bout on HBO at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.