March 28, 2024

In only his eighteenth bout Ryan Burnett 17(9)-0-0 is not only making the first defence of his IBF World title, but he is looking to add Zhanat Zhakiyanov’s 27(18)-1-0 WBA Super World title to his collection. Burnett could have took an easier defence of his title but instead decided to push on and test himself further against his former sparring partner and fellow World champion Zhakiyanov.

Burnett became World champion in June of this year with an impressive points victory over Lee Haskins and has said he wants “to be not just a World champion, but a great World champion,” and by taking this fight he is backing up his words. A victory would see him make history as the first fighter to have ever unified a division in Belfast and only the second person from Belfast to have ever unified a division after Carl Frampton.

Being the honest person that he is, Burnett is not talking about knock outs or disrespecting his opponent he spoke honestly recently and said he didn’t expect the two men to go toe to toe in a war as this was not his style and that he was going to box smart and pull back when he needed to. This is not the kind of language a neutral fan would like to hear but I don’t believe this will deter fans from coming out in their thousands to sell out the SSE arena and be as vocal as ever in their support of the Belfast Boy.

Yes as I said previously these two men have sparred in the past but that was a boxing life time ago when Burnett was still coached by Ricky Hatton, since then Burnett has grew in experience and confidence and added a world title to his waist, Zhakiyanov has travelled the world and also added experience, confidence and a world title to his waist. This will not be much of a spectacle, I expect it to go to the judges’ score cards but it will mean a lot to the victor.

Zhakiyanov is coming into the Lion’s den with this bout, he said he has fought opponents who are better than Burnett and is expecting to win, to me Burnett will have too much for him, with one of the best coaches in the business in his corner in the form of Adam Booth, Burnett with his youth and technical ability will just need to do as he is told and he should come through this fight fairly comfortably. Although Zhakiyanov has only been defeated once he still has a height and experience advantage over Burnett which could ask questions of Burnett’s ability the longer the fight goes on.

To me the Antrim road man should win fairly comfortably, although nothing should be taking for granted against the Kazakhstanish man as Burnett suffered a very serious cut in his previous fight which could have ended his title dream very early but with a bit of leave way from the referee and a good clean up from the cut man Burnett seen out the fight, but with the scare still prevalent above his left eyebrow how much has it healed? How much punishment can it take before it splits open again? Burnett would need to be weary of that scare and remember it only takes one well-placed shot to end a bout. With a pumped up Belfast crowd behind him Burnett has Belfast Buzzing!!