Willie Limond piles 'pressure' on Ricky Burns as motivation to knock out former world champion revealed

Willie Limond has spent the past few months running up and down the Campsies but the Scottish fight hero reckons he’s already scaled a mountain getting into shape for his crack at Ricky Burns.

The fight legends will collide in the Braehead Arena on Friday night in front of 5000 fans. And Limond admitted it’s been a heck of a journey shedding the FOUR stone required to get back to his fighting weight. The 44-year-old said: “To be honest, I’m proud of myself. This is where I feel happy – right in the trenches. When you look at me three or four years ago, I would never have thought I’d be in this shape again. My weight was terrible. When we started talking about this fight I got on the scales as he was talking about fighting at 10-and-a-half stone.

“I thought I’d be about 13-and-a-half stone. I couldn’t believe it when it said I was 14st 9lbs. I must admit, there was a bit of me thinking it was too much. But I got stuck into the training, a good bit fell off. But I’m not going to bulls***, you ask questions of yourself. You have a couple of bad spars and you go home in bits, and you think, ‘f*** this’.

“But then you get stronger, physically and mentally, and you remember all the other camps where I’ve gone through that, even at 23 or 24. You have to drag yourself through those dark moments. But you get there – and I’m here feeling great.

“I’ve been getting out on the runs. I’m not a guy for running around in circles. I prefer to get out on the road, go running up the hills, up the Campsies and stuff. I love being out in the fresh air with the backpack on. It’s good for the soul – but maybe not the soles of your feet! I could not have trained any harder or been in better shape. Let’s get it on.”

Limond and Burns go back more