Ricky Burns, the World Boxing Organisation lightweight champion from Coatbridge, insisted yesterday that his enforced absence from the ring will not have a negative impact on his attempt to make a successful mandatory defence against the Puerto Rican, Jose Gonzalez, in eight days' time.

Burns' promoter, Eddie Hearn was also keen to play down concerns that the shadow of a court case brought by his predecessor, Frank Warren, citing breach of contract, will not influence the outcome of the bout at Glasgow's Emirates Arena. There were certainly no outward signs that Burns is troubled by the threat of a six-figure lawsuit when he performed a public work-out at the city's St Enoch Centre.

Burns, inactive since September as because successive defences had to be called off, took time to say: "I'm not concerned about the postponements. I did two full training camps of 12 weeks before they fell through; I'm good to go."

Hearn, meanwhile, conceded that the prospect of impending court action is on Burns' mind after also accusing certain parties of deliberately "leaking" details of the action to members of the press in a deliberate attempt to disrupt the Scot's preparations.

"In his head, Ricky has no real concerns," said Hearn. "We know what has happened over the last few years and we're quite relaxed about it. It's a decision Ricky has had to take to further his career and he has a tremendous legal firm working for him.

"The £300,000 and all this sort of stuff, that's been put out there to serve a purpose; to disrupt Ricky, mentally, before this fight, in my opinion, and it's just another obstacle for him to overcome. But Ricky is mentally very strong and I don't think it's going to affect him, at all."

Meanwhile, Hearn confirmed that unification bouts with Adrien Broner, the World Boxing Council champion, and Miguel Vazquez, holder of the Internatioanal Boxing Federation belt, are live possibilities.