WHO needs Caesars Palace when you’ve got the Summerlee Industrial Museum? The home comforts of Coatbridge may be a world away from the glitter and glitz of Las Vegas but the bright lights of the strip continue to tempt Ricky Burns like a siren warbling on a rocky outcrop. Then again, he could always enjoy the shimmering razzmatazz of the Auld Hoose pub on Whifflet Street of a Saturday night?

Victory over Julius Indongo in Glasgow this weekend could open plenty of doors for Burns. “Ricky has always wanted to box in Las Vegas and this is his big chance,” said Tony Sims, Burns’ Essex-based trainer.

Sims has been keeping a close eye on Burns over the past 12 weeks or so and has put him through a variety of paces as the Scot, who was celebrating his 34th birthday today, prepares for his super-lightweight unification showdown with his Namibian rival.

By all accounts, Indongo is going to be as awkward to handle as a Rubik’s Cube smothered in grease. The raking southpaw sent shudders round the boxing scene with a rapid fire crash, bang, wallop that saw him claim a 40 second knock-out over the stunned Russian, Eduard Troyanovsky, back in December.

It’s been a thorough training camp for Burns and Sims is confident the preparation work that’s been put in will reap a reward once the bell goes.

“To prepare for Indongo, we brought in a lot of different southpaws for sparring and he’s probably put in his best work in my time with him for this one,” said Sim, who has been working with Burns for the last couple of years.

“We’ve been lucky because we’ve had a lot of good, tall southpaws available down where we are. Some box off the back foot and others come forward. In the past the hardest thing for me at times was to stop Ricky from working too hard but we have a programme now and he sticks to it religiously.

“He was training seven days a week when he first came to me but he then had to adapt to my routine and he’s done that. Now he gets adequate rest and I was able to check on that because he was living near to the gym.”

Sims, who can still be found in the corner of IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, has been impressed by Burns’ ability to adapt in the time they have worked together. At 34, Burns has plenty of boxing miles on the clock and Sims knows that experience remains a valuable weapon in the armoury.

“I’ve had to change some of the things that he’d been doing after we started working together,” said Sims. “They say that old dogs can’t learn new tricks but Ricky is one of those fighters who can change.

“Part of that comes with experience but he can also adapt his tactics in the middle of a fight as well as at training. He’s a special sort of fighter.

“If you teach him something he might not get it there and then but he’ll go away and think about it a lot. Then he’ll try it out and make that special move or that certain combination work for him. Defensively, it’s the same and he brings it all together through sheer effort. He puts everything into his training and makes things happen.”