Ryan Burnett

Background

Burnett was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Career

He currently holds the British, WBO European and WBC International Bantamweight titles. He is the middle child of three brothers, from an Irish nationalist background. With an interest in the sport from as young as four years of age, Burnett began boxing in Belfast"s Kronk Gym before moving to Gerry Storey"s Holy Family Boxing Club, a gym famed for uniting boxers of different religious and political backgrounds.

Fighters like Burnett and Paddy Barnes, have always trained here alongside fighters of unionist backgrounds such as Carl Frampton, which through the years has helped break down borders in their community.

While rising to number one in the AIBA World Youth amateur rankings, Burnett amassed a record of 94 wins and 4 losses. He claims to still "dispute most of them losses".

The highlights of his amateur career however, were his silver and gold medal wins, in the World Youth Championships and the Olympic Youth Games respectively. After acquiring those medals, Burnett suffered a back injury that ruled him out of competition for a year, and hampered his opportunities for success at senior level

Not long after regaining fitness, Burnett decided to turn professional.

2010 | World Youth Championships

He defeated Erik Sokolov of Germany - 4-0, Manuel Fabrizio of Italy - 3-1, and Rober Estrada Barrera of Colombia - 16-4 in the first three rounds. In the Semi"s, he defeated Cuban fighter Yosvany Veitía in a 5-3 victory. Burnett then met local Azerbaijani, Saman Alizada in the final.

2010 | Olympic Youth Games

In the semi final of the games, which took place in Singapore, Burnett defeated Zohidion Hoorboyev of Uzbekistan.

In the final, Burnett once again met Samaz Alizada, who he had lost to in the World Championships. Alizada went into the fight as the world number one, but Burnett avenged his previous loss with a dominant 13-6 victory.

Burnett turned professional in January 2012, after signing a deal with Hatton Promotions. With Hatton Promotions enduring turbulent times, Burnett was forced to leave their stable in September 2014.

After what had been a long spell out of competition, he joined up with Adam Booth in London to kick-start his pro career.

In November 2015, Burnett received a shot at the vacant British Bantamweight title against former holder, Jason Booth. In January 2016, it was announced that Burnett would fight on the undercard of fellow Belfast man, Carl Frampton, in his world title unification bout with Scott Quigg. Burnett faced Frenchman, Anthony Settoul, for the WBC International Bantamweight title.

Achievements

• Burnett won seven All Ireland titles and four Ulster titles in that time, along with several multi-nations tournament medals. Burnett won five fights in seven days on his way to the final of the World Youth Championships in Baku. In the Quarter-finals he met Filipino fighter Mark Anthony Barriga, who he overcame with a 6-4 win. After a grueling week for Burnett, the home favourite took the win, sending Burnett home with a silver medal. Burnett won gold at the inaugural Olympic Youth Games in 2010, and became the first ever Youth Olympics boxing gold medalist in the process. He then moved to Manchester, England where he would be trained by company founder - former world champion Ricky Hatton. Despite managing a first round knockdown over the veteran Brit, Burnett was taken the distance and won the fight via Unanimous Decision. Burnett produced a highly praised performance, and won the fight through another Unanimous Decision.