RICKY Burns plans to roll back the years when he takes on one of his old sparring partners Lee Selby on the undercard of the Josh Taylor-Regis Prograis Ali Trophy final card at the o2 on Saturday. A former world champion at three different weight classes, the veteran of 51 fights knows that realistically his last chance of contending at world level again could depend on taking care of business against Lee Selby over a 12-round lightweight contest. Having said that, the 32-year-old Welshman knows that the same equally applies to him.

Now 36, the former world champion at super featherweight, lightweight and super lightweight, can’t wait to fight under the lights at this famous Greenwich arena for the first time. The two men rubbed shoulders when Selby came north to help Burns out in his preparations for taking on Terence Crawford five years ago.

“Big nights like this at the o2 are what I am in boxing for," said the 36-year-old from Coatbridge. "I have never boxed here before but these are the big shows I have always said I want to be involved in. I know it is a tough fight but preparation has gone well, everything has gone well.”

While Burns is essentially moving down a weight, Selby is moving up, but Burns isn’t reading too much into that. “When we did spar, I always used to say I couldn’t believe the size of him for a featherweight,” said Burns. "He used to say he made the weight easy but I am not going to look into it that much, we know what to expect, we are looking forward to putting on a show.

“I’m expecting an extremely tough fight,” said Selby. “Ricky Burns is very experienced and you can’t ask for tougher. I’ve seen him fight a full fight with a broken jaw. Realistically for both of us if we intend challenging for world titles again we have to win this fight. It will be difficult to fight at this level again if we don’t win this fight. But I think it will be harder for Ricky because he is older.”