Ricky Burns: My story is not finished

Former three-division champion Ricky Burns returns to the ring on Saturday, when he takes on Ivan Njegac in Newcastle on the Matchroom card on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.

Burns, now 35, is looking to get himself back in winning form with this fight, which should be doable as Njegac (10-5, 3 KO) is a club fighter from Croatia and on paper, not much of a threat to the Scottish veteran, whose own mark is 41-7-1 (14 KO).

Burns says he’s not done yet, and that he’s looking to get back to the big fights.

“The Ricky Burns story is not finished just yet. I’ve got no regrets in my career. I’ve lived it. I’m proud to say I’m a three-weight world champion and still think there’s a couple of big fights in me. That being said, I have a job to do on Saturday night for those to come to fruition.”

Burns also said if he had to pick a big fight, it would be a rematch with Anthony Crolla, who beat Burns in his last fight in October 2017:

“If I had to pick one fight to have next it would be the Crolla rematch. I’ve watched it back a couple of times and think it was a draw in all honesty. Whether it can be made or not is another matter. He needs to get his finger out.”

Will Burns get back into the big fights? Hey, probably at least one more — he’s still got some name value, still fought pretty well against Crolla, and it’s easy to sell a three-weight champion as an opponent, too.

Whether he’s successful or not is another story. He’s definitely gotten older, and time beats everyone eventually.