Ricky Burns vs Miguel Vazquez fight in doubt, contracts not finalized

The scheduled March 16 lightweight title unification between Ricky Burns and Miguel Vazquez may not happen after all, as reports are out that the contracts have not been finalized. Nobody in or around boxing seems remotely surprised by the news, and rival promoter Eddie Hearn called the news a "worst-kept secret" on Twitter.

The card, to be promoted by Frank Warren, was to feature Burns-Vazquez, Nathan Cleverly vs Robin Krasniqi, George Groves vs Ali Mouhamed Ndiaye, and Dereck Chisora's return. As of today, a mere 13 days before the event, Burns-Vazquez looks like it's 50-50 to happen at best, Chisora still doesn't have a license from the BBBofC, and Groves is bolting Warren's camp for the Matchroom Boxing team.

In other words, there seems a very real possibility this entire card will fall through, as right now, the only thing that seems truly locked in is Cleverly-Krasniqi.

Miguel Vazquez had this to say recently:

"There is nothing concrete. I am waiting on the response from the promoters. If they come to an agreement, there will be a fight."

There's nothing really circulating to this extent, but one has to wonder if Warren is struggling so much with BoxNation and his own cards that there might not be something a lot bigger than losing fighters or losing announced fights. By all accounts, BoxNation hasn't exactly been a rousing success in terms of the money it's generating, and while that has been speculation, whenever boxing promoters don't come out and tout how much money something is making, chances are that it's not making much, if any.

There is some hope that this means Burns will come to the States and fight Adrien Broner this summer, but that may be more a fool's hope than anything right now. With Matchroom continuing to get stronger, Golden Boy insisting they're going to open a UK office this year, and Warren lacking a great TV outlet, it's worth at least considering, no matter how crazy it may sound, if Warren is not on his last legs as a major promoter. He's beaten the odds plenty of times in the past and bounced back, but really, it seems nothing is going his way at the moment.