<p>Borehole destressing technology is an economic and effective measure for mitigating roadway rockbursts. Understanding the relationship between the energy-release principle of boreholes and roadways is important to mitigate roadway rockbursts. First, in this study, to effectively evaluate the active energy-releasing capacity of boreholes, the borehole burst model for energy-releasing evaluation is established, directly related to rock strength, rock brittleness and borehole sizes. Second, the ratio of the actual mining stress to the critical stress of roadway or borehole bursts as a new dynamic risk index was defined, the occurrence order of two bursting behaviors was theoretically given, and a classification standard with four risk levels was developed. Third, we propose the critical energy density index of borehole bursts to evaluate the active energy-releasing capacity of boreholes. The R–B energy efficiency ratio is introduced to evaluate the proportion of active energy released from coal seam boreholes to the ultimate energy storage of rockburst roadways. The results show that, the borehole burst occurs prior to the roadway burst, and this is the theoretical basis of borehole bursts used as an early warning phenomenon of roadway rockbursts. The main influencing factors of the energy-releasing capacity of boreholes include coal strength, coal brittleness, borehole diameter, and borehole length. The energy released by boreholes accounted for 40.9% of the ultimate energy storage of rock burst roadways in the Longjiapu mining area, which verified the engineering applicability of the R–B energy efficiency ratio.</p>