Burns eyes Broner showdown after latest London defence
WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns is to return to the ring on December 15 at the London Excel and hopes victory will secure a unification title fight against America’s Adrien Broner.
The Scottish world champion on 22 September defeated Dagenham’s Kevin Mitchell over four rounds and, as promoter Frank Warren said after that particular victory, after this week taking his wife on holiday to Las Vegas, Burns will make a swift ring return in order to maintain his impressive progress with a showdown against the winner of Broner versus Antonio DeMarco a future possibility.
“I’m really looking forward to fighting in London again,” Burns told City A.M. “Last time I fought here was against Michael Katsidis and I got a great reception then. I’m taking it a fight at a time, I need to get this out of the way on the 15th. Adrien Broner’s my mandatory challenger but he’s got a fight for the WBC title against Antonio DeMarco.
“I’m hoping to find my opponent out next week – it’s definitely going to be someone in the world’s top 10 – so I’m expecting a tough one.
“I’ve been told that as long as I win in December, I’ll get a crack at the winner of Broner-DeMarco.”
For former British super middleweight champion Groves, of Hammersmith, it will be the first fight since suffering a considerable cut in his sixth-round knockout victory over Francisco Sierra in California, and one which he will be using to secure a potential world title fight after previously being on the brink of securing a shot at the WBO champion Arthur Abraham.
Saunders, the Commonwealth middleweight champion, continues to express his desire for a significant domestic fight with world title challenger Martin Murray, and told City A.M. that he will imminently begin training for the December bill despite only two weeks ago defeating Australia’s Jarrod Fletcher with a second-round knockout at York Hall.