Polish your skills or you'll never make the top, Burns warned

Jun 21 2009 Ewing Grahame

Commonwealth king Ricky Burns has been warned he'll never become a world champion unless he learns the basics of boxing.

The 26-year-old Scot outpointed Ireland's Kevin O'Hara to make the third successful defence of his super-featherweight crown on Friday.

But manager Alex Morrison claims Burns is far from the finished article.

He said: "There's talk of Ricky going for the WBO title but he's not ready.

"In my day you had to learn the basics before you were even allowed to spar. Ricky has natural ability but he hasn't learned those basics.

"He needs to work on his defence because right now he's relying on his reflexes to get him out of trouble."