Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Burns ‘should have made Honours List’
Nelson shocked by Ricky’s honours snub
Ricky Burns’ former coach Billy Nelson reckons the Coatbridge boxer should be an MBE and a member of the British Boxing Hall of Fame.
And he reckons Burns’ former trainer Rab Bannan should also be honoured with a statue at the town’s Barn Boxing Club – and is willing to fundraise for that, should North Lanarkshire Council sanction it.
Nelson saw boxer Curtis Woodhouse (BEM) and coaches Brendan Warburton, Robert Wright (both MBE) and Christina Peacock (BEM) listed in the New Year’s honours list, and says Burns has been overlooked because he isn’t the type of person to crow about his achievements.
Burns could be forgiven for shouting from the rooftops about his achievements in the ring, having been one of only three British boxers to have been three-weight World champion, and the first in Scotland to do so.
Burns was WBO super-featherweight champion from 2010-11, WBO lightweight champion from 2012-14 and held the WBA light-welterweight title from 2016-17.
He was also Commonwealth superfeatherweight champion from 200809, and challenged for the British and European super-featherweight belts.
Nelson said: “You don’t become a three-weight World champion unless you’re a brilliant fighter and an astute athlete.
“It’s a Scottish thing, you know, that he’s not getting the recognition that he deserves.
“I think the Scottish public and press should have been shouting his name from the rooftops.
“To win one world title you’ve done well.
“Some Scottish guys have won one title in one weight, he’s done it in three different weights – you ask any professional boxer, to even go up three weights is hard enough, so to do it and win world titles is astounding.”
Nelson also reckons there’s plenty of fellow sportsmen and women out there who have been recognised, whilst not hitting the same heights as Burns has in his sport.
He added: “There are a lot of people within sport who haven’t achieved a fraction of what Ricky did and they have MBES, CBES, whatever, so surely he is entitled to at least the equivalent.
“He’s just not one of those who comes out and shouts from the rooftops and tries to bring attention on himself, he’s a quiet kind of guy.
“Why should he be a victim of that? If anything he should be adored for it, being modest, but that’s just my opinion.
“Of course he should be in the British Boxing Hall of Fame, and he will be, but if they have put ring announcers and the actor Sylvester Stallone in the main Hall of Fame, why would a three-weight world champion not be in it.
“If young people look up to the way Ricky Burns trains and conducts himself they will be better people for it and better boxers.”
Meanwhile, Nelson was saddened to see Burns’ long-term coach Rab Bannan pass away in July of last year, and says he was one of the nicest men you could meet.
And he believes Bannan, too, should be in line for recognition of his impact on the sport, as he revealed his hopes to build a statue in his honour.
Nelson said: “Rab should get a posthumous MBE and maybe get a family member to receive it on his behalf – he should have had that a long time ago.
“He was a lovely, lovely man, you got him the same way the whole time and that’s a rare commodity in life, let alone boxing.
“I think where the Barn Club is, in the entrance to it, why not put a wee statue of him there?
“It would be fitting, and if the council would allow that I would help raise the funds to try and pay for the costs of it.
“I’ll get the cost of the statue, if it would be allowed to be put there.
“It’s very fitting for him, and Ricky, because they were very, very close.”