Eddie Hearn praises Ricky Burn ahead of world title contest

Promoter Eddie Hearn has paid tribute to Ricky Burns' willingness to fight the best as the Scot prepares to bring world title boxing back to Glasgow.

The former WBO super-featherweight and lightweight champion faces long-standing European champion Michele Di Rocco at the SSE Hydro on May 28 for the vacant WBA super-lightweight belt.

The winner could face American Adrien Broner, who defends his "super'' WBA title against Ashley Theophane on April 1.

Hearn said: "The WBA will order the winner of this fight to fight the winner of Broner versus Theophane. That was a fight (Broner-Burns) that was talked about a lot when Ricky was at lightweight and now they get a chance to do it again.

"It's a great fight. I fancy Ricky in that fight maybe even more now than last time, because I thought Broner was an incredible lightweight but he hasn't been as effective moving up the weights.

"But all of a sudden you are talking about winning the world title and going in with the likes of Adrien Broner. It could completely ignite his career in one night. It's a great opportunity.''

Burns has only won three of his last seven fights but Hearn believes that statistic has more to do with the quality of his opponents than the 32-year-old's form.

"It's been frustrating,'' Hearn said.

"He has had some tough breaks in the ring: he broke his jaw against (Raymundo) Beltran; he ended up fighting Terence Crawford who has gone on to become one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world; he lost to (Dejan) Zlaticanin who now looks like winning the WBC world title.

"So he has been in the deep end - he put up a great fight in Texas against (Omar) Figueroa. He has been fighting anyone.

"You could wrap him in cotton wool and get him seven wins in the last seven fights quite easily. But he wants to fight the best and when he came to us, we started to make the tough fights.

"You are not going to win them all but he wants the big fights. This is a chance to do it on home soil and he is so happy to bring boxing back to Glasgow and get the opportunity to fight for another world title.''