Burns: I have the perfect style to beat Martinez

STV

Scottish boxer Ricky Burns believes he has what it takes to claim the WBO super featherweight title when he challenges champion Roman Martinez for the strap on September 4. The 27-year-old will have to be the matador taming the bull against the hard-hitting Puerto Rican.

“I believe I have the perfect style to beat him, he is going to be chasing me about the ring. We’ve been working in the gym on me going forward a lot more, so it’s a case of mixing it up when we go into the fight,” said an extremely confident Burns, who faced a similar challenge when out-boxed Michael Gomez last year.

Burns is relieved to finally have a shot at a world title, following a succession of delays and re-negotiations, and to have a date to focus on in his preparation for the world championship bout to be held at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall.

“The fight has been long overdue. There has been a few set-backs with the date and things like that, but I’m just really happy that the fourth of September is set now and I’ve got something to look forward to,” said the Coatbridge fighter.

“My body has been getting ready to fight and over the last year I’ve had a few dates set and I’ve been training to fight and been let down with a couple of weeks to go. But again, I’m really glad that it’s happening.

“We’ve got this week off. We start back next week and that’s ten weeks solid training and I can see me bringing this title back to Scotland.”

RICKY BURNS WORLD TITLE CHALLENGE:

Burns, 28-2 (7 KOs), knows what he has to do to beat the heavy-handed Martinez 24-0-1 (15 KOs) and believes the step up in class will force him to step up his own game.

“This is my dream and I’ve got to go out there and prove to myself I can do it. But the better the opponent in front of me, the better I am going to box. I do believe I am bringing that title home,” he said.

“Over the past few months in the gym things have been clicking well. We’ve been bringing different sparring partners up from all over Britain and things have been clicking together well. It’s just the case of what we have been doing in the gym, taking that into the fight.”

A victory would see Burns go into the Scottish history books alongside former world champions Alex Arthur, Scott Harrison, Jim Watt, Ken Buchanan and Benny Lynch.