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WBA junior welterweight titleholder Ricky Burns is officially set to unify titles with IBF champion Julius Indongo on April 15th in Glasgow Scotland, reports RingTV. Burns (41-5-1, 14 KOs) won the vacant WBA title by stopping Michele Di Rocco in eight rounds last May. He’s since made one title defense against Kiryl Relikh this past October.
Indongo (21-0, 11 KOs), a native of Namibia, won the IBF strap last month by knocking out Eduard Toyanovsky in the first round. And because that fight wasn’t long enough for him to take any real damage, he shouldn’t have any trouble making the turnaround for this fight.
“When Julius Indongo knocked out Eduard Troyanovsky he was immediately an opponent I was interested in,” said Burns. “Indongo can clearly punch and that’s an impressive way to win a world title, especially in Russia. It was some shot he hit Troyanovsky with.
“It’s a huge fight in the division and the kind of fights I need to be involved in at this stage of my career. There were other names talked about but I wanted the toughest, most dangerous fight out there. Indongo was that man. He is a big, tall, rangy, southpaw but bring it on. I have no fear of anyone and it is only the massive fights for me now.”
Indongo says he doesn’t expect Ricky Burns to be put away easily, but that he has confidence in his team and that he’ll be able to put a smile on his fans’ faces come April 15th. With a win here Indongo could go from relative obscurity to the big time in a heartbeat.