Ryan Burnett

Early life

Burnett was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is the middle child of three brothers, from a nationalist background. Burnett was educated at St Patrick's College, a Roman Catholic secondary school on the Antrim Road.

With an interest in boxing from as young as four years of age, Burnett began training at 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.

Amateur career

While rising to number one in the AIBA World Youth amateur rankings, Burnett amassed a record of 96 wins and 4 losses. He claims to still "dispute most of them losses". Burnett won seven All Ireland titles and four Ulster titles in that time, along with several multi-nations tournament medals. 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

Burnett won five fights in seven days on his way to the final of the World Youth Championships in Baku. 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 Quarter-finals he met Filipino fighter Mark Anthony Barriga, who he overcame with a 6–4 win. 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. After a grueling week for Burnett, the home favourite took the win, sending Burnett home with a silver medal.

2010 Olympic Youth Games

Burnett won gold at the inaugural Olympic Youth Games in 2010, and became the first ever Youth Olympics boxing gold medalist in the process. 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.

Professional career

Burnett turned professional in January 2012, after signing a deal with Hatton Promotions. He then moved to Manchester, England where he would be trained by company founder – former world champion Ricky Hatton.j

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. Despite managing a first round knockdown over the veteran Brit, Burnett was taken the distance and won the fight via Unanimous Decision. 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. Burnett produced a highly praised performance, and won the fight through another Unanimous Decision.

In June 2017, Burnett won the IBF Bantamweight title against titleholder Lee Haskins in Belfast.