You would have to be Ricky Burns or one of his 10,000 friends in Glasgow on Saturday night to believe the man from Coatbridge with a titanium plate in his recently broken jaw can turn back the health-threatening power of the American Terence Crawford to hang on to his WBO lightweight title.
Burns's promoter, Eddie Hearn, says the noise in the Scottish Exhibition Centre will chill the challenger's bones as if those fans were piping their man into battle, but he may need more resolve than in any of his previous nine world title fights to fuel the passion this time.
Crawford's weapon of choice is a left hook, evidence of which was vivid in his one-punch starching last year of the solid Mexican Alejandro Sanabria, who had never been stopped in 37 fights. While there seems to be more fanfare accompanying the man from Omaha, Nebraska, than his record would suggest is wholly justified, he arrives at this opportunity on the rise, unbeaten, bristling with confidence at 26 and knowing he has the backing of Top Rank.
In his first fight at 10 stones, Crawford did to Breidis Prescott over 10 rounds last March what Kevin Mitchell had done to Amir Khan's nightmare opponent in the course of 12 rounds five years ago.
So he clearly has boxing skills (although his amateur record sparkles rather than glitters) to go with a pair of heavy fists. He confirmed that in his last outing, another 10-round points win to hand the accomplished Russian Andrey Klimov his first defeat in 17 contests.
Crawford grew up hard – a street-savvy CV is almost compulsory for visiting American fighters – and says: "I didn't want to listen to nobody; I was one of those knuckleheads." In support of that claim, he says a bullet that grazed his head during a dice game that got out of control reminded him life was safer in the ring.
But, against all of that, this is his first fight outside the US – he has operated mainly in the Midwest, with occasional visits to Las Vegas for learning fights on the undercards of major shows – and his first scheduled for 12 rounds. Burns has been operating at this level since taking the WBO super-featherweight title from Román Martínez in 2010 and has gone the championship distance six times, although his last fight must have seemed twice as long.
By general consensus, Burns was gifted a draw – as well as the broken jaw – against Raymundo Beltran in September – and felt sufficiently guilty to offer the Mexican a rematch. But Crawford is in front of him on Saturday night and he will be just as difficult an opponent.
Burns has put in six weeks of quality sparring – against Mitchell, particularly, and the Londoner testifies he is ready – but there has to be concern when the champion responded to queries about how his mended jaw would hold up under fire with the words, "fingers crossed". There will be no room for doubt against Crawford. He will feel this is his time, and he might be right.
Sky has put a lot of faith in Anthony Joshua, and he has not let the broadcaster down in four outings since he won Olympic gold in London. His fifth test – a six-rounder on the undercard against the 38-year-old Argentinian Hector Alfredo Ávila, who has been stopped 11 times in 38 bouts – should not detain him long.
It is a busy weekend across the boxing universe. In Bristol, James DeGale, another Olympic champion with world title ambitions, cannot afford to slip up against Gevorg Khatchikian, whose name he struggled to pronounce but who will make his acquaintance know soon enough. The unbeaten Dutchman has shown little regard for the Londoner's pedigree this week, and DeGale will use that as incentive to ensure he stays on track for an eliminator against Badou Jack, the Swedish born super-middleweight who boxed for the Gambia in the 2008 Beijing Olympics – when DeGale won his gold medal at middleweight.
No British gold medallist has gone on to win a world title as a professional and DeGale is unlikely to let Khatchikian complicate his journey en route to Jack, and then the WBC champion, Sakio Bika. Channel 5 is hoping he delivers too, to keep its profile alive in a crowded field.
While DeGale has waited six years to come within sight of a world title shot, one of the amateur game's decorated greats, Vasyl Lomachenko, gets his chance in only his second professional fight, in Texas on Saturday night against the WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salinas, who will be having his 54th paid contest. That is some disparity, but Lomachenko, a double Olympic gold medallist who lost just one of his 397 amateur bouts – and exacted revenge twice – is so gifted he should prevail.
That fight is on BoxNation, which is also showing the rematch between Julio César Chávez Jr and Brian Vera. If Chávez does not impress this time, he will be in danger of slipping from view in the 12st ranks.
