FOOTBALLERS talk about how supporters can become the 12th man that leads them to victory.

For Ricky Burns, he is hoping a partisan Glasgow crowd can roar him through 12 rounds and help deliver a record third world title.

The 33-year-old is now only three days away from his date with destiny at the huge SSE Hydro, where Italian Michele Di Rocco stands between him and making history as the first Scot to ever achieve world success across a trio of weights.

Di Rocco will present a seizable obstacle for Burns to hurdle in Saturday’s top bout. The 34-year-old has only ever lost won fight (40-1-1) which came almost nine years ago, and has triumphed 18 times by knockout.

On the road to face the man dubbed ‘The King’, his Coatbridge opponent has travelled far and wide including his trip to Texas to face Omar Figueroa in his own back yard.

It will be Burns with home advantage this time, and he is keen to make it count.

“We know the size of the fight but I’m going to go out there and enjoy it. That’s the main thing.

“The fans are great, they always come out and show their support. Once that first bell rings it comes down to me and him.

“When it gets tough that’s when I find the fans help you. Especially in the last couple of round when you are landing and the crowd are going nuts, they spur you on.

“It’s going to be a great night of boxing with a few good fights. I’m looking forward to it.

“Obviously, he’s hardly ever fought outside Italy so I don’t know what frame of mind he’s going to be in.

“How’s he going to feel when he walks out at the Hydro? How’s he going to cope with walking to the ring and being booed by everyone?

“It’ll be the same once the fight starts, especially when the going gets tough. He’ll have the crowd against him and I’ll be constantly in his face for the 12 rounds.

We’ll find out how he deals with all that on Saturday night.

“For me, a ring is a ring, no matter where it is but not everybody is like that. I can block things out once I’m in there and we’ll discover whether he can do that as well.”

Going for the WBA World super lightweight title, it means a step up in weight class that has seen Burns forced to put on a few extra pounds.

He believes he will comfortably hit his target, but the man known as Rickster to his fans admits it hasn’t always been a straightforward task.

“I’ve actually been trying to stay big for the full camp. When I fought in Texas I felt that for the weigh ins and the fight night I wasn’t putting on enough wait.

“Obviously I’ve started cutting down this week and my weight has just dropped again, even though I was trying to stay heavy.

“It just means I can have my wee bit extra to eat in the build up but I do make the 10stone limit comfortably.

“The week before every fight is the same. No matter what weight, it’s getting that last couple of lbs off.

“We finished sparring last Friday so I’ve come back home for fight week. I started cutting down and the weight just started to fall off. That’s how I know I’ll make it quite comfortably.”