RICKY BURNS today spoke for the first time about the reasons for his surprise split with long-time trainer Billy Nelson.

The 31-year-old ex-WBO lightweight title-holder from Coatbridge, who has joined the Essex gym of Tony Sims, said his decision was prompted by the feeling he had become stale.

Burns split with Nelson after losing his crown to American Terence Crawford at the start of last month. He explained: "I sat down with my family and spoke about the situation and I just felt as if I needed a change."

Of the Sims set-up, he said: "It's a great gym and I get on really well with Tony and the other lads like Kevin Mitchell, Anthony Joshua and John Ryder.

"We are going to Spain on Monday and I think the change of trainer, getting some new ideas and a total change of scenery, will be for the good."

Sims last year guided Darren Barker to the IBF middleweight title while Mitchell - stopped by Burns two years ago - is to fight an eliminator for Miguel Vazquez's IBF lightweight title.

Burns said he was motivated to go for a world crown by criticism after his unanimous points loss to Crawford. He said: "After the fight people were saying I was past it and that I hadn't looked good in my previous couple of fights, and that annoyed me.

"There's a lot more to come from me and we are possibly looking to go down the WBC route, although I would love a rematch with Crawford.

"Although Crawford is good I wouldn't say he's so good that I wouldn't want to fight him again and I would be more than happy to go to America if that's what they wanted, because I belong at world level."

Burns will fight again at the end of June at Braehead Arena against a high-ranked WBC contender with a view to a crack at champion Omar Figueroa.