RICKY Burns has promised to give the dangerous Kiryl Relikh his "undivided attention" after it was announced yesterday that the Belarusian would provide the opposition for the Scot's first defence of his WBA Super-Lightweight title. The 33-year-old from Coatbridge became Scotland's first three-weight world champion when he stopped Italy's Michele di Rocco in the eighth round at the SSE Hydro in May.
A host of super-fights theoretically beckon but first Burns must take care of the unbeaten Relikh at the same venue on October 7. Promoted by Ricky Hatton, Relikh is the mandatory challenger and boasts a daunting record, having won all 21 of his previous fights, with 19 of them as knockouts. The fight will be screened live on Sky Sports.
“Relikh is a very tough fight as a first defence," said Burns, whose victory against Di Rocco saw him add a Super Lightweight title to previous world crowns at Super-Featherweight and Lightweight. "He’s got a high KO ratio so he will be very dangerous throughout. Trust me he has my undivided attention and I will have to be at my best to get through this. There are some massive fights out there in the future against some huge names in the 140lbs division – but we’re taking it one step at a time, and that starts on October 7 at the Hydro.”
Relikh landed the vacant Inter-Continental title in May with a second round stoppage over Lazaro Santos de Jesus in Bulgaria, a belt which he has now successfully defended twice. “Kiryl is one of those cool, unflinching boxers – nothing fazes him,” said Hatton. “This is a big opportunity for him and he’s not bothered about being the underdog.
“Kiryl’s been training and boxing away from home for years so he’ll have no problem going to Scotland for the fight. I think having the crowd against him will bring the best out of him. Ricky Burns is a top class fighter. You don’t win three world titles by being anything less than world class, but there always has to be a changing of the guard and I think this could be Kiryl’s time."
The undercard is still taking shape but Scotty Cardle will defend his British Lightweight title against Kevin Hooper, Commonwealth Games gold medal favourite Charlie Flynn will take on Manchester’s Kofi Yates, with Flynn’s Commonwealth Games teammate Joe Ham and Brixton’s Heavyweight star Dillian Whyte also on the bill.
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 here