Burnett to vacate IBF title
Ryan Burnett has today confirmed that he will indeed fight on the undercard of Anthony Joshua/Joseph Parker live on Sky Sports Box Office on March 31st. However, it is not the opponent I expected, and he has lost a world title in the process.
You may recall I wrote an article on3kingsboxing.comlast week that a purse bid was ordered for Belfast man Burnett and Puerto Rican challenger Emmanuel Rodriguez. However, that fight is not to be. Instead Burnett will fulfil his WBA mandatory and fight Venezuelan Yonfrez Parejo.
Burnett had a fantastic 2017 and was my British Boxer of the year after unifying the IBF strap he won against Lee Haskins with that of the WBA ‘Super’ title against Zhanat Zhakiyanov in front of a hometown crowd in October last year.
Burnett had this to say about his upcoming fight “I’m delighted to be added to this show it’s going to be an incredible experience to defend my World title in front of 80,000 in Cardiff,” said Burnett. “I don’t really get involved in the politics but we knew that when we face Zhakiyanov that is was likely we may have to vacate one of the belts because of mandatories but I’ve unified the division and now we move on to new challenges.“The IBF called an interim title bout between Rodriguez and Haskins so we proceeded to make the fight with our WBA mandatory Parejo,” said Burnett’s promoter Eddie Hearn. “Last week we were notified that bout would no longer take place and that Rodriguez team were not willing to negotiate and they called immediate purse bids. Our deal was already in place with Parejo so we will vacate our IBF title and continue to face our WBA mandatory.”
By: Aaron Cooper
Be the first to comment