The Scots are making a wee bit of noise

Burns is a two weight world champ

Spearheaded by current WBO interim lightweight champion Ricky Burns and his trainer Billy Nelson, Scottish Boxing is buzzing at the moment, with plenty of good prospects coming through, and also some big fights on the horizon.


Burns has had a magnificent year and has become a two weight world champion, improving so much in the last two years, which kicked off with that incredible points win over then #1 super featherweight, Roman "Rocky" Martinez. The way he out-boxed Katsidis was superb, and showed everyone, including myself, that he is a genuine world level operator. A big all British clash with Kevin Mitchell, or even John Murray beckons, but their could also be a couple of all Scottish clashes for him.


Lee McAllister has had his last three fights at 140lbs and challenges for the European light welterweight title in February 2012, but he could easily drop down a division. While Burns another potential opponent for Burns could be the returning Scott Harrison, back from his jail sentence in Spain, and set to return at this weight, having like Burns been a world champion at super feather.

Harrison is coming back in 2012

This week John Simpson challenges Lee Selby for the British featherweight title, I fight I really fancy him winning, especially as he's had more time at Nelson's gym for this one. Another Nelson fighter was excellent in his most recent fight, Paul Appleby played his part in probably one of the British fights of the year against the unbeaten Liam Walsh, which he lost on points. Appleby is still young and with more work and focused camps, he is a danger in the super featherweight division.


It's hard to forget Kenny Anderson because he's not based north of border anymore after some gangland problems, but this guy is an absolute warrior, shown in his fight with George Groves and just needs the breaks to get a title opportunity. He's in action this week as well.

Simmons is one of several prospects impressing in Scotland

The depth of talent goes right down to the prospects coming through, Stephen Simmons is an excellent, former amateur star at cruiserweight, who is 3-0 (1 KO) and has shown great power and an impressive skillset in his three outings. The flyweight division is probably not the most well known in Britain, but a 19 year old called Iain Butcher is coming through, he's 2-0 (0 KO's), and has boxed nicely in both pro appearances. A fighter I've featured before on my blog is super feather Michael Roberts, who's 6-0 (0 KO's), like Butcher has nice skills, but might lack some power, and the same can be said about another fighter in the division, Glasgow man Jon Slowey, who's 7-0 with no early wins. Finally there's a highly regarded light welterweight coming through called Sammy Hill (2-0, 0 KO's), who has boxed incredibly well in his two pro outings.


All of this makes for a very promising future for Scottish Boxing, it would be great to see Ricky Burns headlining a big bill at Hampden Park or somewhere in the next year or two, but we've seen some decent bills at places like Kelvin Hall and Ravenscraig Leisure Centre recently, and there's definitely a market for it in Scotland.


Being a Welshman I have to mention that like in Scotland with Nathan Cleverly heading the charge, Welsh Boxing is back on the up, and I think it's safe to say that the Celts are coming!