Sims: Tricky Ricky’s ready to take out Julius
BOXING trainer Tony Sims last night hailed Ricky Burns’ ability to learn new tricks as the Coatbridge fighter prepares for one of the biggest bouts of his career.
Burns put his birthday celebrations on hold yesterday as he continues his preparation for Saturday night’s showdown with Namibian southpaw Julius Indongo.
Sims, who can still be found in the corner of IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, has been impressed by Burns’ ability to adapt in the time they have worked together.
At 34, Burns has plenty of boxing miles on the clock and and Sims, who has been working with Burns at his Essex training base for the last couple of years, knows that experience remains a valuable weapon in the armoury.
He said: “I’ve had to change some of the things that he’d been doing after we started working together. “They say that old dogs can’t learn new tricks but Ricky is one of those fighters who can change.
“Part of that comes with experience but he can also adapt his tactics in the middle of a fight as well as at training. He’s a special sort of fighter.
“If you teach him something he might not get it there and then but he’ll go away and think about it. A lot.
“Then he’ll try it out and make that special move or that certain combination work for him. Defensively, it’s the same and he brings it all together through sheer effort. He puts everything into his training and makes things happen.”
One thing that didn’t happen for Burns was a match up with Adrien Broner, who has progressed up the weights with the Scot. A tussle on American soil looked to be on the cards until Broner announced a different opponent and defeated Adrian Granda- dos by split decision back in February.
Burns is still hopeful of going toe-to-toe with the fighter from Cincinnati and Sims is calm about the prospect.
“I wasn’t too worried because I believe everything happens for a reason and, if Ricky unifies these titles, a fight against Broner will always be there,” he added.
“I’ve heard Broner is touring over here at the moment and that he’s planning to turn up at Ricky’s press conference on Thursday.”