Adrien Broner
Burns was next scheduled to meet mandatory challenger, and "Boxrec" No. 1 rated super-featherweight, Adrien Broner, but announced on 22 September 2011 that he would be relinquishing his WBO super-featherweight title and moving up to compete at lightweight. Burns said that the move up a weight division would ease the pressure of having to control his weight saying "the last couple of fights it was getting harder and harder for me to do it." Adrien Broner commented on the situation, saying, "You vacated the title talking about you couldn't make weight no more. But you just fought four times and defended this title", Broner further said, "But everyone knows boxing is a game where you can duck fighters... and I guess he felt like running away was best for his career."