Burns sell-out needed as Gonzales fight confirmed

EDDIE HEARN admits he was forced to pay over the odds to prevent Ricky Burns being stripped of his World Boxing Organisation lightweight title and now needs to attract a sell-out 10,000 crowd to the Emirates Arena in Glasgow on 11 May to justify the investment.

Burns’ first contest under new promoter Hearn will be against the WBO’s mandatory challenger, unbeaten Puerto Rican knockout specialist Jose “Chelo” Gonzalez. The fight was only confirmed a matter of hours before Hearn announced it at a media conference in Glasgow yesterday.

The WBO had threatened to strip Burns of his title if a deal to defend it against Gonzalez, who has won all 22 of his contests so far with 17 stoppages, was not agreed. The Scot left previous promoter Frank Warren earlier this month after two scheduled dates for title defences were postponed.

If Hearn had been unable to agree terms with Gonzalez’s manager, Peter Rivera, the fight would have gone to purse bids which would have meant another delay of several months for the frustrated Burns.

“It has been a horrible five days since I got the letter from the WBO last Thursday saying it had to be Gonzalez,” said Hearn. “We had to come up with a deal for him that is chunky to say the least.

“He is being well overpaid, but we had no choice. Now I have to sell the venue out to make it work. It was a case of either fight Gonzalez or be stripped of the title. We looked at other routes and possible opponents, but to move in as Ricky’s new promoter and ask him to give up his belt right away wasn’t what I wanted.

“I spoke to Ricky at length about it and he was good as gold. He told me to do whatever I needed to do, but thankfully we got the deal done for him to keep his belt with a couple of hours to spare.

“If it had gone to purse bids, I know what would have happened. We would have been outbid by someone who had no intention of staging the fight. All of a sudden, we would have been told that Ricky had to fight Gonzalez in Puerto Rico. We probably wouldn’t go and would relinquish the title.

“If we hadn’t got the deal done on Monday night, I would probably have relinquished the title before it went to purse bids because I could see what was conspiring against us. We were boxed into a corner.”

Hearn’s plan is for Burns to fight three times in Glasgow this year, with further outings in September and December assuming he comes through the defence against Gonzalez successfully. He is determined to ensure the Scot becomes a major attraction in his homeland.

“It must have been a bit soul-destroying for Ricky to have a big fight in Glasgow last September, which went as well as the one against Kevin Mitchell did, then find you are scheduled to have your next one in London.

“There are only three world boxing champions in Britain at the moment – Ricky, Carl Froch and Nathan Cleverley. If they can’t fight at home and sell out arenas, we might as well pack the sport up.

“Scotland has to celebrate the fact it has a world champion. They have to come out and support Ricky if we are going to grow this and keep bringing the big fight nights to Scotland.

“When the number one contender is a big punching Puerto Rican who is unbeaten, it should sell well. It’s a proper fight, not someone who is hand-picked. Ricky is still up against it in this fight. Gonzalez will have a lot of support politically to win. I don’t mean that in terms of the judges, but because he is a Puerto Rican and the WBO are from Puerto Rico.

“He is one of them and he is going to come over here with a lot of expectation from his country. He does fancy his chances, but I think Ricky will have too much for him. I’m hoping he will stop him late on. Gonzalez comes forward and likes to have a war, but Ricky isn’t afraid to stand and trade. That was another reason why I was prepared to go beyond the realms financially, because I knew what type of fight it would be.

“Ricky is an interesting character. He is someone who doesn’t appear to have the self-confidence you would expect from a two-weight world champion. Not in his ability, but in his personality.

“That’s because I don’t think he has ever felt like a superstar or celebrity. I don’t think he has any interest in being a celebrity. But that doesn’t matter. Because I’ve told him I’m going to get him so much exposure, he will be embarrassed. His name is going to be up there in lights. Whether he likes it or not, that’s what is going to happen.”

Hearn insists legal action from Warren against Burns for breach of contract will not prevent the 11 May date or any other future contests taking place. The boxer himself is thrilled by his new promoter’s commitment to Scotland.

“Eddie is talking about me fighting regularly in Scotland and building up my profile,” said the 29-year-old. “In my eyes, that’s what should have been getting done all along. After the Kevin Mitchell fight at the SECC, we should have been building on that straight away, rather than taking me down to London.”