WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns will make his debut under the Matchroom Sport promotional banner on May 11th at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow. Although no opponent has been confirmed as of yet, a unification with IBF king Miguel Vasquez is still in play. The pair were due to meet on March 16th before the Mexican withdrew from the bout due to injury. The highly anticipated fight appeared to be off when the Scotsman parted company with promoter Frank Warren but Eddie Hearn of Matchroom revealed to ThaBoxingVoice that this may no be the case.
“The [Miguel] Vasquez fight is one we’d like to make really” he said “We’re talking to his people and trying to sort things out.”
If the Vasquez fight can’t be made Burns will have to make a mandatory defence of his title as his first two defences, against Paulus Moses and Kevin Mitchell, were voluntary.
“We are due a mandatory with [Jose A.] Gonzalez who we’re happy to fight,” Said Hearn
The current WBO Latino champion boasts a professional record of 22-0(17KOs) but is yet to have faced anyone of Burns’ level while boxing exclusively in his homeland of Puerto Rico.
The card will feature Scottish boxing’s brightest talents along with Matchroom’s established stars.
“John Simpson will definitely fight” said Hearn “We’re just looking at opponents for him. Gary Buckland would have been good but he’s boxing in Argentina, I like the Gary Sykes fight or something like that. Stephen Simmons, the big cruiserweight, we’re also looking to get him on the bill along with David Brophy and we’ll bring some of our boys up there as well.”
