RICKY BURNS has accorded challenger Paulus Moses full respect by naming the former WBA lightweight champion among the three best fighters he will have met in his 12-year professional career.

The Scot will make the first defence of the WBO lightweight title he acquired when the Mexican Juan-Manuel Marquez relinquished the title in January, against the Namibian at the Braehead Arena on Saturday night.

The sell-out fight is Burns' first fight on Scottish soil since he forced Ghanaian Joseph Laryea to retire after seven rounds at the same venue on March 12 last year.

Scrutiny of Moses' record backs up the champion's respectful stance. The 33-year-old won the WBA 135lb title in 2009 via a unanimous points decision in Japan over Yusuke Kobori, before losing it on a sixth- round stoppage to the highly regarded Venezuelan Miguel Acosta in 2010, in his second defence.

Moses possesses a right hand of considerable power, given the 19 knock-outs it has produced.

"I would put Moses in the top three fighters I have faced in my career, alongside Michael Katsidis and Roman Martinez. This is a guy who went to Japan and won the WBA belt by a points victory, which is no mean feat away from home.

"Moses has only had one defeat and that came against Acosta, who is world class. I may have the advantage in terms of youth but he has it in terms of experience and I know that, early on, it is going to be very tasty. But I have always said that the better the opponent the better I fight and that will have to be the case once again on Saturday night."

Burns also admitted his determination not to suffer a similar fate as Alex Arthur, who was handed the WBO super-featherweight title outside of the ring in 2008 but lost it in his first defence against Nicky Cook.

"For me, beating Michael Katsidis was every inch a world title fight but the record books show I was made full champion when Juan-Manuel Marquez relinquished the belt. That gives me even more motivation to make sure I don't come up short on Saturday night. But I believe I am pretty close to my peak and that whatever Moses throws at me I can handle."

Intriguingly, Burns has not ruled out a fight with the former world featherweight champion Scott Harrison down the line.

Harrison, who will return to the ring for the first time in 6½ years on March 31, at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, claimed on the Sky Sports Ringside show that he will be fighting for a world title after two comeback fights.

With both men under contract to Frank Warren, a pre-Christmas bout between them remains a prospect. if a distant one.

Burns, who has ducked no one in his increasingly illustrious career, admits that if Warren made the Harrison fight sometime in the future he would have no fears.

"First of all I have to say that all my attention is on Paulus Moses. He is a very dangerous opponent who has fought some of the best out there and fighting in Scotland will not faze him. For any of other fights I want to happen, I have to get passed him.

"There are a few boxers who want a piece of me right now and that includes Kevin Mitchell. So there is a queue there but what I will say, and I repeat this will only happen if I beat Moses, is that I have never ducked anyone. If Frank Warren puts someone in the ring to face me, whoever that is, I will fight him, no fear."