Interview: Ricky Burns, boxer Published Date: 29 August 2010 By Paul Forsyth RICKY Burns has a routine he likes to follow on the day of a fight: a few small meals eaten at regular intervals, an hour and a half with his favourite boxing movie, Rocky IV, and a journey to the venue that doesn't get him there too soon. This content is protected Ricky Burns' reward for a win in his biggest bout will be a title and a tattoo The last thing he wants to do on his big night is hang around in the dressing-room, taking his time with the bandages, wondering what lies in store. What he likes least is the waiting, the thinking, the nerves. There will be plenty of those at the Kelvin Hall on Saturday ahead of his long-awaited tilt at the WBO super-featherweight title. Burns Night, as it has, rather inevitably, been dubbed, gives the 27-year-old a precious opportunity to become only the 11th Scot ever to win a world championship. If Burns can depose the Puerto Rican holder, Roman Martinez, who has yet to be beaten in 25 fights, his name will be up there with Jim Watt, Ken Buchanan and the rest. It's asking a lot of the Coatbridge fighter, whose last outing was against a relative journeyman. With 28 wins and two defeats from 30 appearances, his record is not flawless, but he has a habit of rising to the occasion. Burns says that he wouldn't mind taking a hit in the early exchanges, just to remind him that the task is fraught with danger. "Every boxer that goes into that ring is nervous. If you're not, there's something wrong. Stepping up to the world level ... I've yet to do that. But I know what I'm up against. Knowing that you are in there against a good opponent, that's what is going to give me the edge in this fight. It's going to keep me on my toes." Although he is the WBO No.1, and has been for over a year, his manager, Frank Warren, rates his chances as "50/50". If he is to become the first Scottish boxer since Scott Harrison in 2002 to win a world title on home soil, he will have to overcome a hard and fast puncher who has stopped 15 of his 24 opponents. Last year, the then champion, Nicky Cook, thought he was just about handling Martinez until a fourth round in which the Englishman was left partially unconscious. Burns prefers to concentrate on his own strengths. If there is any video analysis to be done of a future opponent, he leaves most of it to his trainer, Billy Nelson. Between fights, he immerses himself in training, so much so that he decided a couple of years ago, for the sake of his own sanity, to get himself a part-time job. For a few hours every week, he is to be found in a local sports shop, where the only ring is that of the cash till. "Because it's in Coatbridge, I know everybody that comes in, and all I get is, 'what are you doing working in here?' The reason I do it is that, when you're training for fights, it can be quite hard. http://sport.scotsman.com/boxing/Interview-Ricky-Burns-boxer.6501017.jp
Come on Ricky!!! I'm there Ringside. On my mobile, inside with shades on, shadow boxing by the ring, waving at the camera.
You sound like a wee FUD nutjob!!!!!!!!! Try going into a gym and seeing what a top fighter puts themself through and you'd stop your shitty remarks.IMO THIS IS A 50/50 FIGHT! Although Burn's speed could be the biggest factor.
Billy just ignore this windup merchant, thats all he can do, acting like a ****in bellend. Good luck on saturday!!:bbb
Rick said in boxing news recently that he stopped reading the forums a while ago, cos too many people were writing him off as a no-hoper, so he just decided he wants to try & prove them wrong on the night instead of reading all his ill-wishers ill-wishing him. I bet this bit of info made your dick hard nutjob Oh I forgot, you only want to see Ricky broke in two cos you got thousands riding on this fight, you gangsta you! Dont worry, if Ricky wins you are still invited to the jock party here though, but if Ricky loses, I dont expect to see you gloating cos after all, you said yourself you only want Martinez to win to make your bank account bigger. Nothing personal & all that. Remember? Seriously though, even if Ricky gets beaten on the night, you can be sure the jocks in here will be proud of him anyway & will still have a good time talking about our big fight night at the Kelvin, cos we all know Ricky is up against it here. Without getting all Braveheart again, the jocks here are just happy that we are going to experience a night like no other in Glasgow, its a tremendous card, & its all down to an englander!!! Frank Warren, I salute you, the man didnt half deliver with this belter of a card.
Here's the other half of the interview. The Scotsman website has a **** layout and this bit was on the next page: You have to lock yourself away from all your pals. (Working in the shop] just gives me something to do. It takes my mind off boxing." The manager, of course, has given him a couple of weeks off for the biggest fight of his career, a showdown that ADVERTISEMENT seems to have taken forever to organise. Since the protracted negotiations between Warren and the champion's camp were completed in June, Burns has been champing at the bit, not least because of the venue. It was in the Kelvin Hall that he made his professional debut in 2001, when Marvin Hagler said that the Scot was a champion of the future. It was there that Jim Watt, hit by "the single hardest punch I ever took in the ring", recovered to win the world lightweight title in front of a raucous Glaswegian crowd in April 1979. "It's a great venue," says Burns. "The atmosphere generated in that place is unbelievable. "In all my Glasgow fights, the atmosphere and the crowd are commented on. I've got a great support in Scotland, and hopefully this one will be a sellout. It's going to be a memorable night. The big crowd gives you that wee bit of pressure. And, when it gets to the later rounds, if you're feeling tired and you have 2,500 people cheering your name, it's going to give you an incentive to do that wee bit more." Burns cannot afford to be drawn into a slugging match. Even Warren admits that, if Martinez clips the Scot with one of his better shots, it will be all over. Accused in the past of leaving his chin open to attack, Burns is more disciplined now, with better movement, but there is no room for error. His objective is to do throughout the fight what Cook managed for only three rounds. "In boxing, all it takes is one punch, and Nicky got caught. He just never recovered and that was the reason Martinez got the big finish. In the first two rounds, Nicky was boxing well behind his jab, hitting and moving. That's what I'm good at as well. We've been working on a lot of different tactics for this fight so I think Roman is in for a wee shock. "If you look at his record, you see that he is a big puncher, but I've been in with big punchers before. Even in the gym, I'm always sparring with heavier guys. I can take a good shot. I'm not really fussed about that. I'm going into this fight to get the first six rounds under my belt. Then we'll take it from there." If he can hang on, secure a historic victory and add his name to the illustrious list of Scottish world champions, you can be sure of one thing: there will be a new tattoo to show for it. Burns already is covered in body art, much of it done after a success in the ring. "Straight after the fight, I'll be getting booked in for a few more sessions," he says. "I'm addicted to the pain, I think."
