Ricky Burns produced one of the best performances of 2010 to claim a world title at super-featherweight, surviving an early knockdown to beat Roman Martinez on points. This Saturday sees him stepping up a weight to face Aussie brawler Michael Katsidis for the WBO Interim crown. Despite Katsidis’ wear and tear, one senses Burns will have to pull out another career defining performance if he’s to beat the former title holder (well, interim title holder – the governing bodies don’t make this easy!).
A few months before Burns won his world title, Katsidis was producing an impressive performance of his own; stopping Kevin Mitchell on a big Frank Warren show at Upton Park. Mitchell was the pre-fight favourite but Katsidis wasn’t perturbed and hammered the Londoner inside three rounds. The Aussie, 28-4 (23), is no stranger to fighting in Britain, he’s looking to complete a hat-trick of wins on British soil - his first victory, against Graham Earl, was the British fight of the year in 2007 - again, Katsidis was the underdog.
The bookmakers, perhaps remembering those two performances by Katsidis, have installed him as the odds-on favourite against Burns. Thinking about it, this is a battle of two underdogs, both men have produced their best performances when they weren’t expected to prevail and both seem to enjoy the underdog tag. For Katsidis, this fight provides him with the opportunity to show he’s not finished at world level. For Burns, it’s the chance to show he belongs at world level. This is the biggest test of the Scot’s career; Katsidis is very experienced at word level, hits hard and always comes to fight.
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