A historic night for Irish boxing.
In just his 18th professional fight, Ryan Burnett became the unified bantamweight world Champion as he added the WBA crown to the IBF title he already held.
The 25-year-old defeated Kazakhstan’s Zhanat Zhakiyanov in Belfast’s Oddesey arena, in what was the first ever world title unification bout to take place on Irish soil.
In doing so, Burnett has matched fellow Belfast native Carl Frampton, in becoming only the second Irish man to hold two of the four major belts in his weight division.
Congratulations @ryanburnett01 🙌
— Carl Frampton MBE (@RealCFrampton) October 21, 2017
In the end it was a convincing win for the 5 ft 4 in dynamo, with all three of the judges siding comfortably with him.
The final scorecards read 119-109, 118-110, and 116-112 in his favour, although the Kazakh fighter’s coach, Ricky Hatton, was justifiably aggrieved by these scores, claiming they weren’t a fair reflection of the fight as a whole.
Hatton, a former of coach of Burnett’s did admit, however, that the better fighter won on the day.
In fairness to Hatton, he had a point, because, though Burnett dominated the second half of the fight, in the first few rounds it was the Kazakh, Burnett’s former sparring partner, who seemed to have the upper hand.
Zhakiyanov drew first blood in the early rounds, but eventually Burnett’s speed, both of thought and of movement, outfoxed the Kazakh.
UNIFIED WORLD CHAMP! 👑👑 @ryanburnett01 👏 #BurnettZhakiyanov pic.twitter.com/7ATlGHhkNj
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) October 21, 2017
Burnett is now 18-0 in professional boxing, winning by knockout in half of those.
