Tuesday 28 July 2015 17:39, UK
Ricky Burns hopes to battle his British rivals after deciding to return to the thriving lightweight division.
The Scot returns to action against Prince Ofotsu on the undercard of Luke Campbell’s hometown clash with Tommy Coyle in Hull this Saturday, live on Sky Sports.
A move up to light-welterweight was aborted by Burns after he suffered a harsh wide points defeat against Omar Figueroa Jr in Texas earlier this year.
Burns has dropped back to the lower weight class, where he rejoins an exciting crop of fighters, including WBO champion Terry Flanagan, Anthony Crolla, Kevin Mitchell and Derry Mathews.
I will fight anybody, that’s the only way you get the big fights.
“There are so many big fights at lightweight not only in the UK but on the world scene and I can’t wait to get involved in the thick of it,” said Burns, a former two-weight world champion.
“It was frustrating before to hear people say that I was being sent out to America to just be an opponent for Figueroa, I proved them wrong.
"I will fight anybody, that’s the only way you get the big fights. We aren’t looking at a particular route or governing body - whatever comes our way, we will be ready."
Crolla came within touching distance of a world title earlier this month, battling to a draw with WBA champion Darleys Perez, while Kevin Mitchell floored WBC king Jorge Linares before suffering a brave stoppage loss in May.
Burn believes Crolla should have joined the list of Britain’s current world champions and has backed gym-mate Mitchell to continue his pursuit of an elusive belt.
“I was gutted for Anthony in Manchester,” said Burns. “He should have been given the nod but it was a close fight. With Darleys Perez getting the two-point deduction - I can’t get my head round how they gave it a draw.
“Fingers crossed he gets the rematch as Anthony definitely has the beating of Perez and should be world champion now.
“Kevin was gutted after the Linares fight was stopped, he was ahead by a couple of rounds but that cut was pretty nasty, the swelling was bad and he did take a lot of clean shots.
“Kevin will be back soon enough in camp and we can get back to our wars in sparring - as usual and he will be ready to go again. Kevin and I wanted Anthony to win - we joked that we would have a spar and the winner would get to face him in his first defence.”
Watch Burns take on Ofotsu as part of this Saturday's packed Campbell-Coyle bill, starting at 8pm on Sky Sports.
