Ricky Burns Eager For Revenge Fights With Crawford, Zlaticanin
By Edward Chaykovsky
WBA world super lightweight champion Ricky Burns is eager to get some payback against Terence Crawford and Dejan Zlaticanin.
Two years ago when he was still competing at 135-pounds, Burns lost back to back fights to Crawford (28-0, 20KOs) and to Zlaticanin (22-0, 15KOs) - both by twelve round decision.
A few weeks ago, Burns (40-5-1, 14KOs) stopped Michele di Rocco to become the first Scottish boxer to capture world titles in three different weight divisions.
Which way will Burns go? It all depends on the weight division. Burns is happy to remain at 140-pounds and he's open to making a unification rematch with Crawford, who holds the WBO belt. Crawford returns next month in a unification of his own when he takes on WBC champion Viktor Postol on July 23rd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Burns says he is still fully capable of dropping back to the lightweight limit of 135-pounds with Zlaticanin. According to Burns, his first defense of the WBA title will take place on a date in September or October in Glasgow.
Burns exclusively told Sky Sports: "If I'm staying at super-lightweight, then the biggest name is Terence Crawford. I fancy him to get the job done in the unification fight against Viktor Postol. What a fight that would be. If I'm going to go back to lightweight then it'd be the rematch with Zlaticanin.
"I said before the Di Rocco fight that if I won, it would open up so many more options for me at both weights so we'll wait and see what they come up with. After watching Zlaticanin win, I was straight on the phone to my management team to ask if they'd seen it and telling them to get on the phone to Eddie and seeing what the chances of making that fight would be. I'd love to fight him again. It would be a totally different outcome but fair play to him - he's got a couple of big wins and he's got that world title. I'd be more than happy to fight him again."
"Crawford is another name to mention. He's got a unification fight coming up against Postol. Eddie also mentioned Adrien Broner after the Di Rocco fight but I think he's moved back up to welterweight, which would be one step up too far for me."