RYAN BURNETT OUTCLASSED Yonfrez Parejo at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium to retain his WBA bantamweight world title at a canter, but may have suffered a broken hand in the third round which prevented him from rubber-stamping an impressive display in the Welsh capital.
The 25-year-old from Belfast’s Antrim Road was awarded the contest on judges’ scores of 120-108, 120-108 and 116-112, though in truth the last card was extremely generous to Parejo who remained game but was soundly beaten this evening.
Burnett emerged to Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust, striding to each corner of the ring with a smirk. His performance followed a similarly cocksure vein.
The 31-year-old Parejo, known as ‘The Executioner’, pawed tentatively at the Belfast man during a cagey opening 90 seconds, but it was Burnett who threw the first shot in anger, delivering a thudding right hook to the South American’s side.
Burnett’s supreme footwork and feints kept Parejo on edge throughout the opening stanza, and it was rubber-stamped by the champion who finished with a tidy one-two combination on the bell.
Parejo enjoyed the better of the second, finding the target with a couple of solid overhand rights as Burnett smothered his own work a touch, but there never seemed a danger of the Antrim Road bantamweight losing control.
Burnett was a bit looser with his hands in the third, deploying his own right mitt more willingly. He took one back to the whiskers as he switched to southpaw, briefly, but responded in kind: two whipped shots to the body were complemented by a looping right which dipped Parejo’s knees momentarily.
Though he disguised his discomfort consummately, Burnett explained after the fight that he suspected he had broken his right hand during a third-round exchange.
A round later, the Irishman dropped his guard a few inches – whatever about punching, blocking with a broken hand can be unbearably painful – but it merely seemed a stylistic quirk as Burnett planted his feet, swung from his hips and marched Parejo around the ring; his undamaged left hand found minor success, too, but the finest shot of the fourth was another right which, while it didn’t quite detonate to devastating effect – understandably, in retrospect – it did budge Parejo back towards the ropes.
After Parejo landed what seemed like it might have been his first shot in nine or 10 minutes to begin the fifth, the champion nonchalantly retreated to the neutral corner with a smile and a nod, beckoning his foe toward him for a tango. Parejo eventually accepted the invitation to some slight success, but was met instantly by the swinging Belfast man who once more manoeuvred to centre-ring.
By the halfway mark, Burnett was either 5-0 or 4-1 up, and a couple of cuffing three-punch combinations and a peach of a left uppercut through the guard – which jarred Parejo’s head backwards – ensured he extended his lead at the turn of the fight.
The experienced Parejo took Kazakh machine Zhanat Zhakiyanov – whom Burnett dethroned last October – the 12-round distance in 2015, and with his tight guard was never massively troubled by Burnett’s fleeting assaults this evening. Through seven and eight, Burnett continued to move well and control proceedings without doing a great deal. He suffered a cut above his brow, as is his wont, but scarcely looked troubled: for however many bouts his potentially illustrious career lasts, he’ll be cut more often than he won’t.
Burnett enjoyed himself in the ninth, poking his head forward in a bid to lure Parejo out of the blocks, at least drawing a smile from the Venezuelan. He took that stanza, as well as the 10th which followed, at a canter, content to take this one to the final bell and get out of Cardiff with his belt.
By the championship rounds, the game Parejo remained as determined and composed as he did when he and Burnett first traded leather half an hour prior. He continued to swallow the odd jab but repelled most of Burnett’s attacks, while his 25-year-old opponent opted not to over-commit with his title seemingly in the bag and a potentially broken right hand to protect.
Still extremely light on his feet, Burnett did land a stinging right in the final verse which seemed to bother Parejo for a moment. One last six-punch burst with 30 seconds remaining offered a final reminder as to how utterly control the champion had been from start to finish.
Burnett, who has now gone the distance in his last eight fights, retains the WBA World bantamweight title proper, and improves to 19-0(9KOs).
