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Champion Burns at his best as the underdog

The fighter goes through hell to win, says JOHN WIGHT

When Ricky Burns climbs into the ring at the SECC in Glasgow to defend his WBO lightweight title against unbeaten US challenger Terence Crawford next Saturday he will be entitled to feel like a man returning to the scene of a crime he never committed but was convicted and found guilty anyway.

The trials and tribulations Burns endured in 2013 were more than staggering they were inhuman, even for a fighter as experienced as he is.

Not once but twice he was forced to reach down to that place residing in every human being - but that most people don't even know exists after years spent avoiding risk, danger and hardship.

It's called the human spirit and from it is derived the will to endure unspeakable agony in the process of prevailing against seemingly insurmountable odds.

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote: "When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."

Against Jose Gonzalez and Raymundo Beltran, make no mistake Burns looked into an abyss.

What he saw looking back at him is something he alone knows. What we do know is that it was enough to provide him with the inner strength to keep going beyond the point where human logic and instinct ends and the will to survive is predicated on the courage to risk everything in the attempt.

Burns risked everything in both fights, refusing to capitulate, which against Gonzalez saw him survive an onslaught in the seventh round which the Puerto Rican and his team must still watch in awe as the Scot defied the laws of nature.

Just as it broke his heart on the night, it's a fair bet that Gonzalez suffers a broken heart every time he thinks about what might have been - in fact, "should" have been - but wasn't.

Yet even though the world champion's victory - the dramatic nature of it - was rightly met with huge admiration for the heart and guts he showed, we knew that we had just witnessed a below-par Burns do what all great champions do and find a way to win when the chips are down.

Against Beltran a few months later, Burns only held onto his title by dint of the kind of judging that brings boxing into disrepute.

Yet given that he'd fought 10 rounds with a broken jaw, the miracle is that he managed to last the distance never mind the result.

Beltran and his team were justified in feeling they were the victims of an injustice - and going by the silence that met the result the crowd agreed.

But no blame can be attributed to Burns. What it has done where the world champion is concerned is cast doubt in the minds of many over his ability to hold onto his title against next opponent Crawford, commonly regarded as the best he will face in his career to date.

These doubts are all the more reason to back Burns to prevail yet again, reminding us of the way he was written off against Roman "Rocky" Martinez when he challenged for the super featherweight title in 2010.

He proved the doubters wrong with an epic performance that involved him picking himself off the canvas in the first round, going on to comprehensively outbox the defending world champion and take his title by unanimous decision.

The Scot successfully defended his super featherweight title three times before moving up in weight to battle it out for the WBO interim lightweight title against Michael Katsidis.

This was another fight that Burns was expected to lose, with many convinced he'd be steamrollered into submission by a fighter known to possess real juice in his hands.

The naysayers were forced to eat their words again, however, as Burns proceeded to absorb everything the Australian warrior had while countering with the cleaner shots throughout to outbox his opponent and register another deserved unanimous decision.

Anyone following the world champion's career knows that the bigger the challenge - the more he's written off - the better he performs.

Going in as the underdog in the minds of most against Crawford, plus the added mental strength he will have gained from surviving a torrid 2013, means that motivation will not have been an issue in this training camp.

That said, Burns's longtime trainer Billy Nelson is not just relying on his fighter's proven qualities of will and grit to see him through next week.

At the press conference to formally announce the fight in January, Nelson took pains to point out that he'd introduced a strength and conditioning coach into the camp for the first time, which he said was already paying dividends in increasing the power of Ricky's shots, and that he'd arranged for the champion to have the best sparring he's ever had.

Nelson will be leave nothing to chance as he prepares Burns to face an opponent most expect to defeat him, predicting that this would be the hardest fight of both their respective careers.

There is every reason to agree with him. Burns has already proved he's willing to walk through hell in the ring to prevail.

His intensity, volume, work rate, and aggression - married to an undoubted ability to box that was absent in his last two fights - ensures that any fighter who expects to take his title will need to be willing to go to a place most never have to.

Crawford should take note.

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