Monday 17 April 2017 07:59, UK
Ricky Burns can come again despite losing his one-sided unification fight with Julius Indongo.
That was the view of fellow former world champions, Anthony Crolla and Alex Arthur, who were ringside to see the Scotsman suffer a unanimous points loss at the SSE Hydro, Glasgow, on Saturday night.
Burns lost his WBA super-lightweight title to the IBF holder Indongo, after 12 gruelling rounds ended his reign at a third different weight.
But Crolla, who recently lost and then failed to regain his lightweight title to the talented Jorge Linares, has no doubt that the 'Rickster' will return.
"As he [Burns] said he is going to have a rest, spend some time with his family and then he's going to come again," Crolla told Sky Sports.
"He is going to make another charge at something else, but obviously Ricky has been around a while and he's had a hard career and we know what he's done has been amazing.
"I know Ricky loves boxing but he will want to box at the highest level and maybe tonight he ran into a special fighter. It looked that way, so we will have to wait and see how he comes back - maybe for a more suitable opponent."
Arthur, who beat Burns in a British, Commonwealth and European super-featherweight title fight in February 2006, gave his compatriot plenty of credit.
Scotland's last world champion before the 'Rickster' flew the flag single-handedly, insisted Indongo emerged as a "truly world class" fighter in the 120-108, 118-110, 116-111 points win.
"Indongo was almost punch-perfect and I didn't give Ricky a single round," Arthur told Sky Sports.
"As a Scotsman it was difficult to sit there and do that but I really couldn't justify it, he beat him in almost every department.
"But never in a million years was Ricky going to give up.
"As they kept saying in commentary, they just couldn't see him getting stopped. No way."
