By Michael Shepherd – Both men are former world champions and veterans of over 40 fights and though no belts are on the line in this one, there is a lot of British bragging rights on the table.

Scotland’s Ricky Burns (41-6-1) has won world championships in three weight classes but has heard talk of writing him off for several years now. Burns is coming off a loss to Julius Indongo in his last outing in April 2017 which makes this a real crossroads fight.

Burns recently had a run with a world title at 140 pounds and for this one he will head back to his old hunting ground of the lightweight division where he held a world title until 2014.

England’s Anthony Crolla (31-6-3) lost his world title to Venezuela’s outstanding Jorge Linares, failing to regain the title in a subsequent rematch.

Crolla previously won a world title at 135 pounds in 2015 beating Darley Perez, he defended it once against Ismael Barroso before coming up against the aforementioned  Jorge Linares (twice) who by many is regarded as one of the pound for pound best fighters on the planet.

Anthony Crolla and Ricky Burns meet Saturday, and it’s must-win for each man

UNDERCARD

On the undercard Sam Eggington(21-3, 13 KO) vs Mohamed Mimoune (18-2, 2 KO)

Eggington is defending the European welterweight title, which he won in May with a knockout win over Ceferino Rodriguez. He also knocked out and retired Paulie Malignaggi in March, and beat Frankie Gavin last October for the WBC International Welterweight Title at the Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham.

Mohamed Mimoune is a relative unknown and this will be only his second fight outside of France. He shouldn’t cause Eggington any problems, his record shows he does not have much punching power with only 2 KO’s in his 18 wins to date.