Fight Preview: Ricky Burns vs Jose Gonzalez – Niall Doran takes a look at this lightweight clash that is sure to deliver value for money for fight fans
By Niall Doran
Turning to Glasgow this weekend Matchroom Sport are hosting a tasty boxing show with Scotland’s premier pugilist Ricky Burns putting his WBO lightweight title on the line against number one contender and unbeaten Puerto Rican Jose Gonzalez (22-0, 17KOs).
Going into Ricky Burns vs Jose Gonzalez the form card and momentum certainly favours the Scotsman. Burns is coming off a significant period of inactivity with his last fight been last September when he looked sensational stopping Kevin Mitchell in the fourth round. Since then he has parted ways with old promoter Frank Warren and his now joined up with Eddie Hearn’s ever expanding stable at Matchroom. As a result of his leaving his former promoter there has been plenty of things for Ricky to deal with outside boxing given the legal wranglings that have come about with him and his previous promoter. It will be interesting to see what effect if any this might have had on Ricky’s preparations going into this fight. Personally I don’t think it will have had too much effect on him as he’s consistently shown himself to be a model professional over the years. I’d imagine he’s absolutely itching to get back in the ring given the layoff and also given the calling off of his unification fight a couple of months back against Miguel Vasquez. The fact he would have been in training for that Vasquez fight means he was probably in already great condition before Hearn made this fight with Gonzalez.
What about Gonzalez though? Well there is not much to go on about him as he has not really fought any world class opposition to this point as he has exclusively campaigned in his native Puerto Rico up to this point. This as we all know however can mean very little in boxing. He is a dangerous unbeaten South American who can punch who is coming over to the UK as an unknown quantity, ring any bells? Bredis Prescott a few years back had a very similar record when he came over to the UK and trounced Amir Khan in the first round. However I don’t think drawing comparisons between Khan and Burns is really fair on Ricky, a man who has proved his chin time and time again.
For me I think it is certainly going to be a tough fight for Burns against his number one contender here. However I think he will be buoyed by his move to Matchroom and also the fact he will be headlining a boxing event that will actually be the very first sports event of any kind held in the newly built Emirates Arena in Glasgow.
Ricky Burns unanimous points decision roared on by the Scottish crowd!
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