Home advantage may be enough to take on undefeated champ
Ricky Burns may have an advantage in his upcoming fight against Roman “Rocky” Martinez, at least when it comes in the form of additional motivation. The Scottish junior lightweight will be facing off against the hard hitting boxer from Puerto Rico this Saturday in Glasgow, winning over the Scottish crowd long before he ever throws the first punch. Martinez though is not new to fighting on Great Britain’s soil as he captured the title in 2009 in Manchester, England by defeating former champ Nicky Cook.
Martinez is going into the fight an unbeaten man, and having knocked out 15 of his 25 previous opponents, he seems to have the upper hand against Burns whose record shows promise, but indicates a fighter whose development has not yet fully matured. Having undergone 28 fights himself, Burns has lost two and only managed to put down 7 fighters, making it highly improbable that if he does win that it will be with a knockout victory.
Still Burns's speed and quick mind, along with his Scottish heritage may pose a problem to Martinez this Saturday as fighting in front of a crowd whose cheers are almost entirely directed towards your competitor can be quite discouraging. Burns boxing career seems to be building to this moment as his last 13 matches have left him in the winner's spot, but in several interviews his trainers and him have acknowledged that going toe-to-toe with Martinez may not be the best decision just yet.
His previous fight with Kevin O’Hara, a sizeable underdog, showed fight fans an uncomfortable Burns, one that was not expecting his competitor to bring such a fight to him. His underestimation of his opponent left him shaky under all the pressure, despite finally pulling through and winning the bout. He's shown shaky form before under pressure. The bad habit even resulted in him getting a point deducted from the judges’ scorecard due to holding when he fought worn out veteran boxer Michael Gomez.
In many ways he lacks the ability to pull back and turn the fight in his favour, causing him to reveal to his opponents that he is in trouble, a scenario that Martinez may well take advantage of. The reigning junior lightweight has a particularly good knack when it comes to turning the tide. In fact, Martinez originally took the title after getting up from an early knockdown. After being decked in the second round against Cook, Martinez himself came back with ferocity that later proved his opponent's downfall in the fourth round. Cook managed to get himself to his feet, but after receiving an immediate strong hook the referee halted the fight and gave it to the Puerto Rican.
All in all, Martinez will most likely come out strong hoping to dominate in the early rounds and finish the fight off quickly. Still if Burns can withstand the fury of the champion and go the distance, the chants and cheers of the crowd may be enough to push him to a decision victory. Still such a thing may be easy to plan for, but extremely difficult to execute. Martinez has never suffered the taste of defeat and could be very hard to discourage, especially since his last two challengers have been knocked out. Burns, however is not letting any of that get to him and he said openly "...it is the biggest fight of my career but I'm more than confident that I can beat him.”
Burns will be coming into the fight as roughly a 3.5-1 underdog. But don't count him out just yet. Jean Pascal came in with almost the exact same odds against Chad Dawson in their tilt in front of Pascal's Montreal fanbase. Pascal did exactly what Burns will want to do, coming away with an upset victory in front of his home crowd.
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