British Scene: Roman Martinez vs Ricky Burns Preview

Dave Oakes previews Saturday night's super-featherweight clash between Roman Martinez and Ricky Burns.  Check back tomorrow for Dave's preview of the featured undercard bout between John Simpson and Stephen Smith.

The new boxing season begins this Saturday with two intriguing match-ups at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow. The card is headlined by Roman Martinez, who’ll be making the third defence of his WBO super-featherweight title against Ricky Burns. The undercard is topped by a Commonwealth title fight between John Simpson and Stephen Smith.

Martinez (24-0-1 15KO’s) might not be the most well-known fighter but, in my opinion, he’s the best super-featherweight around at the moment and will certainly be the hardest opponent Burns has ever faced.

Burns (28-2 7KO’s) has put a good run of wins together recently, including three successful defences of the Commonwealth title, most noticeably against Michael Gomez and Kevin O’Hara, but Martinez will be a different proposition altogether.

The Puerto Rican’s not the most technically gifted boxer, he’s more of a pressure fighter, stalking his opponent and looking to land his dangerous left hook and uppercuts. He won the title in Britain when he stopped Nicky Cook in four rounds in March last year.

Cook looked to be getting the better of Martinez in the first three rounds, finding the Puerto Rican easy to hit and hurting him badly in the second round. Martinez wasn’t perturbed though and levelled Cook with a vicious left uppercut in the fourth; Cook got to his feet but was sent to the canvas again moments later before being stopped.

That fight goes to show that Martinez has the power to finish a fight at any moment and Burns will have to be vigilant at all times when in punching range. Burns does possess a solid chin, it’s stood up to domestic rivals like Alex Arthur, Carl Johanneson and a past his best Michael Gomez, but he still won’t want to take too many from someone as heavy handed as Martinez.

One major plus for Burns is the fight taking place in Glasgow, ten miles west of his hometown of Coatbridge. The fight was originally meant to take place in Puerto Rico but was moved after a number of postponements.

Martinez will face a much more hostile crowd north of the border than he did when he fought Cook in Manchester. The noise Scottish fans make really is something else; they’re by far the most vociferous fans in Britain. Burns should be able to use that support to spur him on, as long as he doesn’t feel overwhelmed by the burden of their expectations, that is.

There’s no doubt that Burns will have to produce a performance a level or two above what he’s already shown thus far in his career if he’s to stand a chance of causing an upset. Martinez will be in his face from the opening bell; Burns must be patient, conscientious and try to pick the champion of at range with jabs and straight-right’s.

Whilst Martinez’s chin doesn’t look to be rock solid, Burns doesn’t posses a great deal of punch power and I feel he would be foolish to stand and trade with Martinez. If he does so, he could come a cropper early. I believe he’s too experienced to allow that to happen but it’ll be interesting to see how he responds if he does get wobbled, Martinez looks to be a clinical finisher.

On paper, the fight looks like a foregone conclusion, but, the Scotsman has hometown advantage and has been on a good run of form recently. I still fancy Martinez to get the job done but he’ll be in for a hard night if he takes Burns lightly. I’m picking Martinez to win on points but I wouldn’t be surprised if he stopped a brave but outgunned Burns late in the fight.

e-mail Dave Oakes