Ricky Burns is confident he has what it takes to beat Joseph Laryea in his latest world title defence and has laughed off claims he is taking his opponent lightly.

Laryea has warned Burns he will "gut him like a pig" when they fight for the WBO super-featherweight belt on March 12 if the champion does not apologise for a perceived show of "disrespect".

But Burns has seen Laryea upset the odds before when the Ghanaian comprehensively outscored Paul Appleby on the undercard of his first defence at the Braehead Arena.

And he is determined to make sure the African does not take another belt out of Scotland to go with the WBO intercontinental title he won in December.

Burns insisted there would be no apology to Laryea for an incident he cannot even remember and the Coatbridge fighter has already plotted his tactics with trainer Billy Nelson.

"I think Paul maybe underestimated him a wee bit," Burns said.

"He let Joseph boss him from the middle of the ring with that big, long jab.

"I should have been boxing Paul but anything can happen and that was certainly the case there.

"But me and my trainer already have the game plan sorted and we have time to put it into practice in the gym.

"I need to go out there and be the boss from the start, I can't let him take the centre of the ring and dictate the way he did against Paul. I'm 100% confident the title is staying here."

Burns, who will again fight at Braehead, was underwhelmed by his performance in his first defence against Norwegian-based Andreas Evensen, despite not losing a round on the judges' scorecards.

But the 27-year-old felt much of his disappointment stemmed from being jaded following a year in which his meeting with Roman Martinez was postponed several times before his sensational triumph against the champion in September.

"I think I was a wee bit hard on myself," Burns said. "I was expecting the same performance as the Martinez fight, but that wasn't the case.

"I think all I needed was that wee break, not thinking about boxing all together, because last year I just seemed to be training all year while we tried to get Martinez over here.

"I had a couple of weeks off over Christmas and, me being me, I just kept myself quiet in the house on the Xbox.

"The batteries are charged back up. I've been training for the last couple of weeks and it's all systems go."

Promoter Frank Warren had been planning on an all-Scottish world title fight and has urged Burns to keep his focus so Laryea does not scupper more big ideas.

"I was hoping it would be Paul Appleby facing Ricky Burns on March 12 but Laryea upset all the plans," Warren said.

"He showed he has the temperament and mentality to come into another man's backyard and win a title, and is supremely confident, so I understand, that he can do the same again.

"We'll see about that because I have a lot of faith in Ricky's talent.

"Hopefully he will come through it and set himself up for bigger fights in the future.

"I would like to do a big open-air show in the summer but before that he has to focus 100% on Laryea and do what Paul Appleby couldn't.

"Laryea has upset plans already and we have to make sure it doesn't happen again."