WBO World Lightweight Champion Ricky Burns has linked up with
his former challenger Andreas Evensen to prepare for his big March
16th unification showdown.
The Scotsman was in training camp with Evensen at his gym in
Trondheim, Norway, last week as he gets ready to face IBF Word
Champion Miguel Vazquez at Wembley Arena on Saturday 16th March -
live and exclusive on BoxNation (Sky Ch. 437/Virgin Ch. 546).
Burns (R) defeated Evensen in a super-featherweight
defence in 2010
Burns beat Evensen over 12 rounds back in December 2010 to make
the first defence of his WBO World Super-Featherweight title, but
Evensen asked Burns to come and help with his fight against
Alexander Miskirtchian for the European Featherweight title next
month in Denmark.
Stablemates John Simpson, the Celtic Super-Featherweight
Champion, and unbeaten middleweight prospect David Brophy, also
joined Burns on the trip.
"Going out to spar with Evensen again was like carrying on from
our fight in 2010, round 13!" said Burns.
"Even though he's dropped down to featherweight and I've moved
up to lightweight, his power has improved and he's got faster and
cleverer which comes with experience. Some of the locals were
shocked at the intensity of the sparring, it was like a real fight
but the only difference is the headguards and big gloves, Evensen
held his own with me, John and David.
"Vazquez is a totally different style and size to Evensen and
we'll be bringing in sparring partners more similar to Vazquez over
the next few weeks so that I can prepare for him, but I'll also be
working with John and David, which will be hard work, but I
wouldn't have it any other way."
Burns' trainer Billy Nelson added, "Evensen's manager and
promoter Helge Waeroy and his team showed us fantastic hospitality
during our stay in Norway and the facilities were second to none.
Ricky had some excellent spars with Andreas and they did 26 good
rounds together and despite the treacherous snowy conditions, which
coming from Scotland is saying something, Ricky managed to get in a
few tough mountain runs. This was a great start to training and
we'll be stepping it up now to get ready for Vazquez."
Burns with his trainer and promoter Billy Nelson
(L)
The 29-year-old from Coatbridge is excited to be facing a rival
world champion and the chance to become a unified champion which he
has dreamt about since he was a boy.
Burns said, "It's still sinking in that I'm a double world
champion, now I've got the chance to unify titles it's a dream come
true. It's always been spoke about, but as my career has progressed
it seemed more and more likely to happen and now it's finally
here. This is the biggest thing in my life, it's another
challenge and I aim to come through it."
Burns v Vazquez joint headlines a massive fight card along with
Nathan Cleverly's WBO World Light-Heavyweight
title defence against Robin Krasniqi; George
Groves takes on Mohamed Ali Ndiaye for the vacant European
Super-Middleweight title; Dereck Chisora features
in a ten-round International heavyweight contest subject to
receiving his BBBofC license; Liam Walsh defends
his Commonwealth Super-Featherweight title against Logan McGuiness
and Tony Conquest aims to regain his WBO
International Cruiserweight title from Neil Dawson.
You can read the full
previews for that massive March 16th show, billed as Rule
Britannia.
