Eddie Hearn reveals date and city for Ryan Burnett’s first world title defence

Ryan Burnett [17(9)-0] will make the first defence of his IBF bantamweight title in three months time.

The Antrim Road fighter won the title last month at the SSE Odyssey Arena in Belfast with a dominant points win over England’s Lee Haskins.

Burnett required facial surgery to mend a severe cut suffered in the bout and would go on a holiday to Indonesia afterwards, but will be returning to training with Adam Booth soon ahead of his first defence.

The fight will take place in Belfast, presumably in the Odyssey again, on Saturday October 21st.

In a wide-ranging interview with IFL TV, promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom revealed that there will be a “big fight coming up for Ryan Burnett which should be announced next week.”

“We’re going to be back in Belfast at the end of October, October 21st.”

In terms of who Burnett will face, it seems as though there are two main possibilities – a unification with WBA champion Zhanat Zhakiyanov [27(18)-1(0)] or a defence against Puerto Rican mandatory challenger Emmanuel Rodriguez [16(11)-0].

Watch Eddie Hearn’s interview with IFL TV in full below:

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)