I'd just like to enjoy this time. As a fourteen/fifteen year old boy I was laughed at on here for saying Ricky would one day be world champion. Some even said he wasn't good enough to win a British title. Round ye.
Calm down. All we need to do is open a new Brit Forum somewhere else. Then we can just leave this one here and rename it "The Ricky Burns Forum" or "The Scotland Forum". Simples.
I thought of you yesterday. Burns has come on leaps and bounds. He is no longer running, covering up and poppoing the odd 1-2. He isn't perfect but he elevated himself to a new level. Back in the day, I didn't rate him and he lost to Arthur. Going into the Johansson fight a rated him a little more and said he could win that but he still showed flaws, some mental. However I've been rating him since then and I like the Gomez win. Burns has 7 ko's in 31 fights but he is now on a 14-0 (4) streak and he seems to be stunning people when he lands right.
I think a lot of it has to do with him dealing with the big occasions better. I think for the Arthur fight and Johannson fight he maybe froze slightly but after a few good title defenses against comfortable opposition in front of a home crowd, he was able to produce his best work that he shows in the gym/against poorer opposition. He was able to mix it with martinez so well last night which is something he's been doing for years in the gym. He's always had good body shots but his uppercuts have become quite a tool. He's clearly not feather fisted too, we've seen him knock journey men out cold, and he was a big, big puncher in the amateurs and we saw him hit hard enough to bother a world class fighter last night.
You can't buy experience. I was watching the fight with my missus and I said Burns can have a mental bloke and freeze up. He'll be faster but cover up and not let his hands go. On one or two occassions I thought oh **** he's gonna freeze up and Martinez will get the stoppage. Burns didn't and thats one of the ways he elevated his game. A little more luck and I think he would have stopped Martinez. I'm glad to see Burns realise his potential. I just want him to get a little smarter because his main problem is he can be wild and when he throws a combo he'll be wide open, hands low, head high. It was nearly the undoing of him. What was better is that he came back from a knockdown. Must have woke him up. He didn't go into a shell and on many occassions he was on the front foot. Whatever happens Burns can always remember Saturday night.
burns knew what he had to do and what was on the line, he stepped up to the plate unlike mitchell who was all over the press talking **** about khan and other fighters in higher weight classes and talking about a future fight with marquez when there was a beast in katsidis standing in his way.
He can look a bit wild when he comes forward and throws, I was panicking at times, thinking he was going to get cought buy a huge counter by martinez, it happened at one point with the left hook and burns was on shaky legs for the rest of the round. I also got scared in the first round, thinking he was looking a bit slow, but I think I was just imagining it slightly. I only had him winning it by one round while watching it live but got home and saw that in fact alot of the rounds I had him losing, he had actually won comfortably.
Listen. As an old skool ESB member, Mik is telling the truth. As a young lad he came on here waxing lyrical about Ricky Burns, he is THE original Ricky Burns fan on Brit ESB, make NO mistake. I used to talk to a young MIK, & we used to talk about Rickys potential, & he kept me up to date with all things Ricky & Burns, & our MIK deserves his moment of glory, he always had faith in Ricky Burns, & thats that, end of story. Some people go down in ESB history as the biggest fan of a fighter, our MIK is the original Ricky Burns no1 fan on Brit ESB, & thats the truth.