IFB WORLD BANTAMWEIGHT champion Ryan Burnett will fight his WBA title-holding equivalent Zhanat Zhakiyanov at Belfast’s SSE Arena on 21 October.
The fight between the former sparring partners will be the first ever world title unification on Irish soil, with 25-year-old former amateur sensation Burnett seeking to add to his belt collection while defending his own strap.
33-year-old Kazakh Zhakiyanov sports a record of 27-1, and is trained by Burnett’s former coach Ricky Hatton. Burnett, 25, left The Hitman’s stable to team up with Adam Booth in Surrey back in 2015, and ripped the IBF strap from Lee Haskins in sensational fashion back in June in what was only his 17th professional contest.
The unification scrap with his former gym-mate will be Burnett’s second consecutive world title bout in his hometown.
Belfast we are coming again and your boy is going for glory!Press conf/ticket info out soon. Huge fight and big card coming! @ryanburnett01
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) August 2, 2017
Now THIS is a fight. PROPER fight. No s***e. No if's, buts or maybes! The best Elite match made in Ireland for a decade. Sensational work. https://t.co/qceSKDhQID
— BOXING IRELAND (@LoveIrishBoxing) August 2, 2017
“I’m very, very excited!” Burnett told Sky Sports, who will broadcast the fight live. “This is the path I’ve always believed in and asked for – to be not just a world champion but a great world champion and this is exactly the fight that propels me into that position. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’ve done a lot of work with him in sparring, but back then I was a kid and hardly had any fights and he was fighting for the European title.
I know what it’s like to share a ring with him, but he doesn’t know what it’s like to share a ring with the current Ryan Burnett. A lot has changed since we last sparred for me but not with him. It’s good to have that bit of knowledge, I know a few things about him. That can only work in my favour.
“The Belfast fans have really took a shine to me especially since my last fight, everything has taken off and I’m just looking forward to getting back to the SSE Arena with a packed house behind me.”
A former world number one at Youth level, Burnett amassed a record of 94 victories and 4 defeats in an amateur career which saw him win respective silver and gold medals for Ireland at the World Youth Championships and Youth Olympics in 2010.
Burnett’s final amateur bout resulted in defeat to fellow Belfast man Michael Conlan, who addressed a potential fight with Burnett down the road in a recent interview with The42.
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