Ricky Burns

Ricky Burns
Ricky Burns 2013
Data
Birth Name	Ricky Burns
Fight name	Rickster
Weight class	lightweight
nationality	Bulkheads
birthday	April 13, 1983
place of birth	Bellshill , Scotland , United Kingdom
style	Left-hand boom
size	178 cm
Range	178 cm
Combat Statistics
Struggles	52
Victories	43
Knockout victories	16
Defeats	8th
draw	1
Profile in the BoxRec database

Ricky Burns (born April 13, 1983 in Coatbridge , Scotland ) is a Scottish professional boxer. He is a former WBO world super featherweight champion, former WBO world lightweight champion and former WBA world light welterweight champion.

Boxing career

Ricky Burns made his professional debut on October 20, 2001. He won 13 fights in a row, including defeating the undefeated British champion Graham Earl (match record: 22-0). On February 18, 2006 he boxed for the British championship title, the Commonwealth title and the EBU European super featherweight title, but lost on points to Alex Arthur (21-1). He was also defeated in February 2007 on points against Carl Johanneson (25-2).

After some development fights, he boxed on September 26, 2008 against Osumanu Akaba (21-4) again for the Commonwealth super featherweight title and won unanimously on points. He then successfully defended the title against Yakubu Amidu (16-1), Michael "Gomez" Armstrong (38-9) and Kevin O'Hara (16-4).

On September 4, 2010, he defeated Román Martínez (24-0) unanimously on points and won his WBO world title in super featherweight. In December 2010 he won his first title defense unanimously against the Norwegian Andreas Evensen (13-1), followed by a TKO win in the seventh round in March 2011 against Joseph Laryea from Ghana (14-4). On July 16, 2011, he surprisingly won his third title defense in Liverpool by TKO in the first round against Nicky Cook (30-2). Cook had won the WBO World Championship against Alex Arthur in 2008 and lost to Román Martínez in 2009.

Then Burns rose to lightweight. There he won unanimously in November 2011 against the Australian Michael Katsidis (28-4), who had defeated the undefeated Briton Kevin Mitchell in 2010. On March 10, 2012 he was able to beat Paulus Moses (28-1) from Namibia, who held the WBA lightweight world title in 2009/10. Burns was WBO lightweight world champion. In September 2012 he boxed against Kevin Mitchell (33-1) and won early in the fourth round. In May 2013 he managed an early victory in the ninth round against the Puerto Rican Jose Gonzalez (22-0). He had won the WBO Latin America title in June 2011 and had defended it five times by then.

On September 7, 2013, he boxed a draw against the Mexican Raymundo Beltrán (28-6). Burns had a broken jaw in the second round and was on the ground in the eighth round, and a judge rated the fight as a draw, as well as one each for Beltrán and Burns. With this draw Burns remained the title holder, but lost the belt in the next fight on March 1, 2014 by a unanimous defeat to the American Terence Crawford (22-0).

On June 27, 2014 Burns was able to box in a WBC World Cup elimination match against the Montenegrin Dejan Zlatičanin (18-0), but was down in the first round and surprisingly lost the fight on points. Then he rose to light welterweight. There he suffered another point defeat in May 2015 against the American Omar Figueroa (24-0), former WBC lightweight world champion. On November 7, 2015, he beat the Australian Josh King (20-3) by knockout in the eleventh round and became the international lightweight champion of the WBO.

On May 28, 2016, he boxed light welterweight for the WBA world title, defeating the Italian EBU European champion Michele di Rocco (40-1) by TKO in the eighth round. In October 2016 he defended the title unanimously against Kiryl Relich (21-0), who won the WBA world light welterweight title in 2018.

On April 15, 2017 he boxed in an unification fight against the IBF and IBO world champion Julius Indongo (21-0) from Namibia, but lost the duel by unanimous decision on points and with it his WBA title. He also lost unanimously to Anthony Crolla (31-6) in October 2017 .

In November 2018 he defeated former British champions Scott Cardle (23-2) prematurely, but lost to Lee Selby (27-2) in October 2019 .

Individual evidence

predecessor	Office	successor
Román Martínez	Super featherweight boxing champion ( WBO ) September 4, 2010 - September 22, 2011	Adrien Broner
Juan Marquez	World lightweight boxing champion ( WBO ) March 10, 2012 - March 1, 2014	Terence Crawford
Adrien Broner	World Light Welterweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) May 28, 2016 - April 15, 2017	Julius Indongo