RICKY BURNS revealed he may return to lightweight to keep his comeback on track.
The Scot was speaking in the aftermath of his comprehensive success over Frenchman Alexandre Lepelley in Leeds on Saturday night, his first outing at light-welterweight after moving up a division, and one that ended a two-loss streak. But Burns, who sported a slight paunch, made the 140lb weight limit with such ease under the guidance of a new dietician that he has admitted he is now giving serious consideration to dropping back down to 135lb.
"Obviously I am glad I've got the win behind me and now I can start looking forward but I have to admit that making the weight at light-welter was just a bit too easy," revealed Burns. "I came in under 10 stone and I was way lighter than I should have been the whole way up to the fight, I think because I have been working with a new dietician.
"I will be sitting down with Alex [Morrison], Eddie [Hearn, promoter] and my trainer Tony Sims, but if the dietician can get me down for 135lb to fight at lightweight without a problem then moving back down would be my best option. So it could well be that my problems in doing lightweight were not in making the weight but in how I was doing it. If we can complete that process more easily then there are some top domestic fights out there I'd love to get stuck into."
Burns dropped Lepelley in the final 20 seconds of the opening round with a right hand to the temple and a vicious left hook, but the physical advantages that the Scot enjoys at 9st 9lb clearly did not translate to light-welterweight against an obdurate Frenchman who made life awkward throughout for his more illustrious opponent.
All too often Burns' work lacked fluidity as well as venom in the claustrophobic exchanges that ensued, but in the seventh and eighth rounds the Coatbridge boxer put together some slick combinations.
With Lepelley deducted a point for use of the head in the seventh the result was never in doubt and Burns, in need of a confidence boost, finished strongly to win 79-71.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article