Billy's Boxing Blog

This weekend, a super lightweight unification bout is taking place in Glasgow, Scotland. WBA champion Ricky Burns faces Namibia’s IBF champion Julius Indongo. Both boxers are 34 – it was Burns’ birthday two days before the fight. Not much is known about the African fighter, partly because most of his fights have taken place at the Windhoek Country Club against modest opposition. In his previous bout, he travelled to Moscow and stopped previously unbeaten WBA champ Eduard Troyanovsky. His record of 21-0 (11) suggests he can go the distance without too much trouble.

Ricky Burns is Scotland’s first three-weight world champion and has shared a ring with Roman Martinez, Michael Katsidis and Terence Crawford. He has overcome several serious setbacks in and out of the ring and is enjoying a late revival in fortunes. With a record of 41-5-1 (16), the Scot is not considered a hard puncher, although half of his wins at world title level have come early. His main attributes are an excellent left jab and world class stamina.

My prediction: it’s very hard to tell how good an unbeaten world champion really is at the best of times. When that boxer has spent most of his career in obscure venues against very mixed opposition the task is almost impossible. We know he can knock out an unbeaten champion in his back yard and we know he can go 12 rounds against fairly limited opposition. We also know he’s 34 and has never experienced an opponent’s home crowd quite like the one at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow tonight.

If Indongo is going to win, he has to take control from the first bell and hurt Burns early. A much more likely outcome is that after some early rounds are shared, the Burns jab starts to dominate and his excellent stamina allows the WBA champion to dominate the second half of the fight. Ricky Burns to win on points and set up a payday against Adrien Broner.