Boxing preview: Ricky Burns v Michael Katsidis

Let’s get the clichés out of the road first. There’s going to be fireworks on Guy Fawkes Night when Ricky Burns attempts to make a bonfire of the lofty reputation of Michael Katsidis in their interim WBO lightweight title fight at London’s Wembley Arena.

Burns has surrendered his WBO super-featherweight title to make the expected step up to lightweight, while Australian Katsidis is attempting to regain the interim championship that he has held twice before.

In effect, next Saturday’s bout will decide who becomes the world champion because present title-holder, Mexican legend Juan Manuel Marquez, is stepping up in weight to fight Manny Pacquiao on 12 November for the great Filipino’s WBO welterweight belt. Win, lose or draw, it is hard to see the 38-year-old Marquez carrying on, so Burns or Katsidis would inherit the championship which would add a large amount to the purse they could demand for their next fight.

Nicky Cook’s unfortunate retirement in the opening seconds of Burns’ last super-featherweight fight meant the Scot had defended the title he won last year three times and he need fear no-one. Yet it is always difficult to step up a weight and Katsidis is the real deal, a tough fighter who has lost to only the very best – Marquez, Joel Casamayor, Juan Diaz and Robert Guerrero, who relinquished the interim title due to a shoulder injury after beating Katsidis. In addition Katsidis has soundly beaten top Britons Kevin Mitchell and Graham Earle, so it is no wonder Burns is saying that this fight will be his toughest-ever.

“I am preparing for the hardest 12 rounds of my career,” said Burns. “It’s less than a week away now and I’m just looking forward to getting in the ring and getting on with it.

“Moving up to lightweight was always on the cards so, when I was offered the fight with Michael for the interim title, it was the perfect chance to step up. It doesn’t really matter to me that the fight is in London. A boxing ring is a boxing ring to me and, once the two of us step inside those ropes, we know we need to get on with our jobs.

“We don’t need to hype up this fight. We’re both nice guys but, once we are in the ring, things will start to fly.”

Burns’ trainer Billy Nelson famously studies videos of every opponent looking for weaknesses to exploit. He has done the same with Katsidis and Burns hints that Nelson may have found something to put to good use. He said: “I don’t really like watching my opponents, so I leave it to Billy to watch them and try to pick out something that we can work on.

“We have been working on a lot of different things in the gym and the training has been going very well, but, obviously, I don’t really want to give too much away.

“We are expecting a hard, hard fight – that I will say. And I have always said that, once I get in the ring, instinct takes over and I’m sure I’ll be ready for whatever is going to happen.

“I see the fight going the full distance and I know I am up against it, but it’s when people are writing me off that I am my best.”

Katsidis has shown immense personal strength and dignity following the death of his jockey brother Stathi from a drugs overdose last year. He uses the memory of his brother as motivation and is confident of victory even though he has huge respect for Burns.

He said: “I always have to perform at my best regardless of who I fight, but this is a fight in which anything can happen. You can’t underestimate anyone, and I go in there with the expectation that I am going to have the hardest fight of my life.”

Both are agreed, therefore, on what a tough fight this will be. Burns should win, and he is taken to do so on points, but regardless of the outcome, his step up in weight brings up the intriguing possibility of a rematch against the first man to beat him, fellow Scot Alex Arthur, who has also stepped up to lightweight. Waiting in the wings is another Scot, former world champion Scott Harrison, who will this week attempt to regain his licence from the British Boxing Board of Control. Coincidentally, Harrison’s last bout was on Guy Fawkes’ Night six years ago when he retained his WBO featherweight title by defeating Nedal Hussein on points at Braehead Arena.

Burns versus Arthur or Harrison – the pyrotechnics would be colossal if those fights could be made in Scotland but, first of all, Burns must make sure he isn’t burned by Katsidis.

• Burns v Katsidis is live on BoxNation (Sky Ch. 456) from 7pm on Saturday.