HBO’s Boxing After Dark returns Saturday night with a split site tripleheader from both upstate New York and Northern Ireland. The main event from Belfast is a title fight with Ryan Burnett and Zhanat Zhakiyanov unifying two bantamweight belts. Jezreel Corrales will be defending his junior lightweight strap against Alberto Machado in the American based main event. This is my look at the Belfast fight.
33 year old Kazakhstani titlist Zhanat Zhakiyanov (27-1, 18 KOs) had to overcome some real adversity from a real top fighter in American Rau’shee Warren to win his IBF title in February. Twice Zhakiyanov was put down in the first round and twice he rose. Not only did he keep going, but he rallied from the early points deficit to narrowly lift the belt for himself. Both heart and skill were on full display that night.
“ZZ” is a really good fighter. He isn’t perfect as he can fight too straight ahead without enough lateral movement, but he has enough power to make up for it. He also has some real quality wins that he doesn’t get enough credit for against Yonfrez Parejo and Karim Guerfi as they are unknown stateside. Guerfi is the current European titleholder and ZZ put him out with one shot.
Ryan Burnett (17-0, 9 KOs) is younger and the better athlete. Zhakiyanov is 33. This is quite old for bantamweight while the Northern Irishman is at the ripe age of 25. Burnett picked up his WBA belt in June against a weak titlist in Lee Haskins, but otherwise hasn’t fought much above that typical British level. Really, Haskins himself isn’t actually much above British level. This is the juxtaposition of this fight and it is a classic boxing trope. What will prevail? Youth or experience?
The Belfast bantamweight certainly has the athletic ability to outbox the more basic Kazakhstani slugger. Does he have the discipline at this stage in his career though? ZZ will have to catch Burnett with some big shots to win, but that is a very plausible scenario too. As a unification fight should be, this is really well matched. My concern with Zhakiyanov is that age of 33 which is traditionally much older than it seems down at bantamweight. Accordingly, I favor Burnett by decision ever so slightly. I am definitely looking forward to this fight either way.
HBO will open their 10 PM Eastern show with this fight on tape delay. The like Sky Sports show in the UK begins at 2:30 Eastern time with the main event probably between 5 and 6. Avoid boxing websites leading into the American show if you are looking to avoid spoilers. I am not going to report on it until after it has aired stateside.
