Scottish boxer Ricky Burns will be defending his WBO Lightweight Championship this Saturday, May 11 against Jose Gonzalez of Puerto Rico in Glasgow, Scotland.The 30-year-old Burns enters the ring with a 35-2 record along with 10 KOs while the hard-hitting 29-year-old Gonzalez carries a record of 22-0 with 17 Kos.
Burns has won 20 consecutive fights with his last loss coming back in early 2007. He won the WBO’s interim title in November 2011 when he beat Michael Katsidis of Australia by a unanimous decision. Burns is a lot tougher than he looks and is quite busy inside the ring. He likes to let his hands go, but doesn’t really possess much in the way of power.
His opponent, the undefeated Gonzalez, does have a lot of power though and this is going to be a stiff test for Burns’ chin. However, Katsidis also went into the fight with Burns with the reputation of a hard banger, but Burns handled him quite well. Burns said he knows Gonzalez has a lot of power, but that’s just the nature of boxing and he’ll have to handle it. He added that he’ll be prepared for whatever Gonzalez brings on the night and will have to find a way to negate his opponent.
Burns has a lot of boxing ability and he’s going to have to use it rather than get into a brawl with the challenger. He’s got good hand speed and quite a bit more experience than Gonzalez. He’s also pretty good defensively and has a decent chin to go with it. Gonzalez can match the champion’s hand speed, but his defense is a little weaker and so is his experience. He doesn’t throw as many punches as Burns, but he’s more accurate with them and he’s also quite aggressive in the ring.
Burns is the most effective when he uses his jab and right hand. He can throw good combinations from the outsider and then get out of harm’s way and he’s also pretty good at walking his opponents down by just going forward all night long. He doesn’t get hit a lot because his opponents are usually covering up from his high punch output. However, he needs to be more accurate with them.
If he stays active against Gonzalez he’ll be a lot better off than waiting to throw counter punches. There’s no doubt that he has to respect the power in Gonzalez’s fists though and he can’t get careless or slack off. Gonzalez is in every fight just because of his power. It doesn’t really matter if Burns is far ahead on the scorecards he’s going to have to stick to his game plan and keep focus for all 12 rounds.
If Gonzalez can’t catch or hurt Burns it’s going to be hard for him to take the title home with him. Burns is very durable and has never been stopped. Gonzalez’s best tactics will be to utilize the jab and follow them up with straight right hands to the body and head.
This is a big step up in class for Gonzalez. He’s been knocking out opponents left, right, and center so far in his career, but they’re not in Burns’ class. He’s been fighting Grade B boxers at best and could be in for a surprise here. It’s also going to be his first bout outside of Puerto Rico.
As long as Burns can take his power, he should be able to hang onto his crown by a comfortable decision.
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