SCOTT HARRISON has been told he has a long way to go before he will be ready to challenge Ricky Burns for the latter's WBO lightweight title.

The 34-year-old ended a six-and-a-half year absence from the square ring last Friday by demolishing hapless Hungarian Gyorgy Mizsei in four rounds at the Kelvin Hall.

But Burns' trainer Billy Nelson believes there is no way Harrison would be able to turn the clock back to his glory days and dethrone his fellow-Scot if the two got it on for a superfight.

Burns is due to make the next defence of his title against Londoner Kevin Mitchell at the SECC on September 22, with Harrison slated to appear on the undercard and, if both come through unscathed, Nelson admits it would be the fight everyone would want to see.

He said: "Fair play to Scott, you can only fight who is put in front of you and he did everything he was asked. But I think you have to qualify that by looking at the standard of opposition. For me, Mizsei wasn't even good domestic level opposition.

"Would Scott have been able to do what he did against Mizsei if he had been up against a seasoned British title level fighter? He has a long way to go before he is at that level for me.

"The other thing I thought was that his punching was very deliberate and slow. Maybe you would expect Scott to have lost an edge in hand speed after his length of his absence from the sport, but I just felt he was a bit deliberate with his punches and that they did not flow."

While Nelson remains emphatic in his belief that, if the two Scots ever got it on, there would only be one winner, he accepts that a potential tartan tear-up between the former champion and the current one would be the biggest fight seen in a Scottish ring.

He said: "What people are not taking into consideration is that Ricky Burns is a genuine two-weight world champion who is fighting at the peak of his powers at world level while Scott has not operated there for nearly seven years.

"Scott has always struggled with good movers and Ricky has excellent mobility, and I would think Scott would find it very hard to get past his jab.

"Only a fool would deny that if Scott and Ricky got it on it would be massive.

"However, first Ricky needs to take care of Kevin Mitchell, and there is no way we will be underestimating him."