After twelve grueling rounds of extreme infighting, Belfast’s Ryan Burnett added Zhanat Zhakiyanov’s WBA belt to his own IBF strap. It was a weird fight stylistically, but still entertaining and somewhat difficult to score.
Zhanat Zhakiyanov (27-2, 18 KOs) started this fight pretty well which isn’t something he he has always done. Though the HBO team was spitting back confusing Compubox numbers that were contrary to what I was seeing, I thought ZZ was just landed more shots inside over the first two rounds. There was a lot of holding and mauling, however, and the rounds never become particularly easy to score.
Yet, after the opening two rounds, I ended up giving nine of the last ten to Ryan Burnett (18-0, 9 KOs). They would jockey for head and arm position, both let their hands go, and both land, but the Belfast fighter just was more athletic and able to get more in. He also closed the fight a little better than the usually strong down the stretch Kazakhstani mauler. Whenever there was a little distance, Burnett was clearly superior as well. HBO and the official judges agreed with my assessment.
As a side note, it was stylistically appropriate that Ricky Hatton was so involved with both sides of this fight. He is Zhakiyanov’s trainer and had a fundamental role in supporting Ryan Burnett’s career in the past during a difficult time for he and his father. The fight was very much a Hatton fight between the ropes with the holding and mauling in the sort of still entertaining way he could bring.
I am sure Burnett will need to make one or two mandatory defenses next, but should he look to continue unifying then a fight with Frank Warren signed WBO titleholder Zolani Tete would make sense if the promotional issues could be worked out. Tete is South African, but he has been fighting recently almost exclusively in the UK.
