I think I speak for all of us when I say that we wish that this was more common in the sport. Immediately after winning their first world titles, bantamweight titlists Ryan Burnett of Northern Ireland and Zhanat Zhakiyanov of Kazakhstan have elected to face one another rather than to take it easy with a victory lap style first defense. Burnett will have home field advantage in Belfast.
Hosting this fight in Belfast makes sense for all parties involved. This will do good money there, but little anywhere else. Local hero Ryan Burnett won his title there in early June from Lee Haskins via dominant decision. Zhakiyanov won his stateside, surviving two first round knockdowns from three time Olympian Rau’shee Warren to rally to win a narrow split decision.
Burnett owns the IBF belt while Zhakiyanov holds the WBA. As a whole, the bantamweight division is not very deep on the top. Lacking quality opponents probably contributed to this fight being made. Regardless of the reason, however, if only we could have more of these. Boxing would be much better for it. Hopefully this is just the beginning of the unification at bantamweight as well. Zolani Tete holds the WBO belt while divisional kingpin Shinsuke Yamanaka has the WBC version, not to mention a pound for pound top ten ranking from many sources.
