With world titles in three weight classes, Ricky Burns will go down as one of Scotland’s most accomplished boxers ever, and is certainly the most accomplished of this century.
Now 37, Burns (43-8-1, 16 KO) is likely at the tail end of his career, but has still been highly competitive the last few years, including his last bout, a debated majority decision loss to Lee Selby last October in London, dropping back down to lightweight for the first time since a 2017 loss to Anthony Crolla.
Burns doesn’t think he lost to Selby, and says he hasn’t got any plans to retire just yet.
“I just felt as if I had done enough to win in that fight,” Burns said on Matchroom’s Lockdown Tapes. “It wasn’t just the Selby fight but over the last year and on social media, I had lots of people asking me if I was still fighting. After the fight it was things like that going through my head but I’m not ready to retire yet. If I had went in and Lee had punched the face off me I would have said no more.”
That said, Burns knows his age, and surely feels it to some degree in training and after fights, and he feels his time left is probably limited to a year or two.
“I do think I have a couple of good fights left in me so let’s see what happens. I was 36 at the time [of the Selby fight], I am 37 now, and I don’t kid myself. I know I have got a year or two left of my career. I’ve always said I will decide when the time is right, I just don’t like it when people are trying to force it upon me.”
With the COVID-19 lockdown shutting boxing down since mid-March, Burns says he hasn’t spoken about any next dates or opponents, but that when he does hang up the gloves, he hopes to do it in Glasgow, where he’s had several big fights, including his 2010 upset of Roman “Rocky” Martinez, which gave Burns his first world title at junior lightweight.
“I would love to finish my career in Glasgow and have one more big night up here,” he said. “Throughout my career the fans have always turned up and showed great support so I would love to put on one last show for them up here before I call it a day.”
As for post-boxing plans, he says he hasn’t really thought about it a lot yet, but did say he’d like to potentially put together an amateur boxing club and get a pro trainers’ license, something he thinks he’d be good at with his experience.