Ricky Burns and Frank Warren part company

RICKY Burns, the WBO lightweight champion, has parted company with his long-time promoter Frank Warren, according to the Coatbridge boxer’s manager, Alex Morrison.

The split comes in the wake of Warren rescheduling 29-year-old Burns’ unification bout with IBF champion Miguel Vazquez, from 16 March to 20 April, due to the Mexican having contracted a vital infection, said to have been caused by food poisoning.

Burns, through no fault of his own, has twice seen his ­efforts in the gym go to waste in the past four months, firstly when his title defence against Filipino Jose Ocampo was called off in December at short notice.

But Warren defended his decision after producing a medical report from Vazquez’s doctor recommending that he spend ten days at home resting and hydrating as he was suffering from a high temperature, nausea and vomiting as well as palpitations. Vazquez apologised for the problems caused by the postponement, and added: “The infection I suffered in my stomach was very strong.”

Warren said: “Now that Vazquez has issued a statement to confirm this, I hope this puts an end to the matter once and for all.”

But Morrison has questioned the extent of Vazquez’s illness after claiming that footage on YouTube shows the 26-year-old sparring when he was supposed to be laid up in bed.

Morrison said yesterday: “I regret it has come to this because I have known Frank for nearly 40 years, but it has to be for Ricky’s sake. I felt we had to do something to stop Ricky stagnating. Two fights have been called off after he has trained hard for them and it was not even certain that the bout with Vazquez would have gone ahead on 20 April. In fact, I now doubt very much that fight was ever going to happen.”