Positive Signs for Ricky Burns Despite Defeat to Omar Figueroa

It has become a sporting cliche to take positives from a defeat. It is a throwaway phrase, often used by football managers, that helps in some way to placate those who were on the wrong end of the result. For Ricky Burns, however, that line sums up his performance in Texas on Saturday.

Losing to local boy Omar Figueroa on points means Burns—a two-weight world champion—has now triumphed in just one of his last five fights.

The scorecards said he had been beaten comfortably in the end, with two of the judges making it 116-110 in Figueroa’s favour, while the other had the margin even bigger, at 117-109.

What those numbers don’t tell you, however, is that the performance from the beaten Scot was better than what we had seen from him in some time—much, much better.

Jim Watt, who commentated on the fight, went so far as to describe the performance by his compatriot as “the best show we’ve had from him in the last three years,” per Sky Sports.

Praise is always nice, but what Burns (37-5-1, 11 KOs) wanted at the end of his first fight on American soil was another win on his record.

He battled bravely against Figueroa in what was a real brawl. As Bleacher Report’s own Briggs Seekins wrote in his post-fight summary, it was “fought in the proverbial phone booth, chest-to-chest.”

Darren Abate/Associated Press/Associated Press

The home favourite failed to make the light welterweight limit of 140 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in, yet he had no problems going the full 12 rounds.

The former WBC lightweight champion barrelled forward at every opportunity, looking to negate Burns’ jab and get to work in close. The tactic paid off, for the most part, as his opponent was too often a stationary target, stuck with his back against the ropes with nowhere to go.

Had Burns fought the rest of the bout like he did the first round, though, things may have worked out differently.

Using his jab to good effect, he kept Figueroa at a distance while landing shots of his own. The problem was that he did not utilise the tactic nearly enough during the remainder of the bout, particularly after it had worked so well for him in the opening three minutes.

Yet picking holes in the 32-year-old’s valiant effort is to forget how low he had sunk in recent times.

The last time we had seen Burns in action was against Alexandre Lepelley in Leeds last October, when he laboured to a points triumph against an inferior fighter.

But in the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas, he looked a little more like his old self. He was in better shape and seemingly ready for a scrap. There was a sharpness in his punches that had been so obviously lacking of late, perhaps since he disposed of Kevin Mitchell inside four rounds back in 2012.

He was hampered against Figueroa by the deduction of two points, one each in the eighth and 11th rounds, by referee Laurence Cole, whose performance was one of the main talking points on the night.

The Times journalist Ron Lewis, former Ring Magazine editor-in-chief Nigel Collins and Saturday Night Boxing blogger Adam Abramowitz clearly weren’t impressed by the efforts of the ref, judging by their tweets:

Burns was seen having a conversation with Cole—who too often placed his hands on the fighters while they were still looking to throw punches up close—just before the verdict was announced. Considering the margin of the defeat, he had every right to feel aggrieved with all the officials who had been on duty.

So what now lies ahead for the man from Coatbridge?

To move on up, he is going to head on down, revealing on Twitter that he would be dropping in weight:

The decision makes sense, considering that he has won a world title at lightweight. He may never have left the division had he not been so disappointing in his loss to Dejan Zlaticanin last June.

It has been a tough time of late for Burns, both in and out of the ring. He was declared bankrupt earlier this year, per Riath Al-Samarrai of the Daily Mail, after a costly court battle with his former promoter, Frank Warren.

He also suffered a broken jaw in the early stages of his clash with Raymundo Beltran in 2013 yet managed to box on to secure a highly debatable draw. Gareth A. Davies of the Telegraph described the judging as "incompetent at best, utterly disgraceful at worst."

Burns was not so fortunate when he came up against Terence Crawford, with the American outclassing him over 12 rounds in Glasgow to take the WBO strap.

However, there is no reason to suggest that the Scotsman cannot rise again.

It was not Burns’ night against Figueroa, but you sense there’s still another chapter to be written in Rickster’s story yet.