Ryan Burnett Meets Ryan Farrag On Bellew-Flores Bill

By Eliot Foster

Ryan Burnett will make a defence of his domestic belt in the autumn.

The Belfast bantamweight, 24, was ordered by the British Boxing Board of Control to put his Lonsdale belt on the line against Ryan Farrag, of Liverpool, by the end of December.

And it has now been confirmed, by Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Sport, that the fight has been made and will feature on the undercard of Tony Bellew’s WBC cruiserweight world title defence against BJ Flores on October 15.

Burnett (14-0, 9 KOs) is also the WBC International champion at the weight and he is relishing facing Farrag, the former English and European champion, in his back yard at the ECHO Arena, exclusively live on Sky Sports.

“I’m really excited to finally be defending my British title,” said Burnett, who won it with a shutout decision against Jason Booth in Manchester last November.

“The build-up is going to be great and I think that someone like Ryan will bring the best out of me and I will perform well against him because he is a very good fighter.”

“I’m going into the lion’s den and putting my belt on the line,” Burnett continued,” [and] you have to do these things to prove that you are a proper champion.”

Farrag, who was stopped inside three rounds by Frenchman Karim Guerfi back in June, will be keen to get back to winning ways and grab the prestigious British title to boot.  

Meanwhile, Tom Farrell will return on the bill.

The super-lightweight (9-0, 2 KOs), from Liverpool, won an English title eliminator against Kofi Yates in his last fight, on May 29 at Goodison Park, and will now look to build on that success as he fights for his first title, with manager Steve Wood confirming to Boxing Scene that they are “just waiting” to find out who it’ll be against and what the title will be.

Elsewhere on the card, two-time British lightweight title challenger Sean Dodd will defend his WBC International crown against Dewsbury’s Gary Sykes, alongside former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price, who returned with a stoppage victory on May 29, and WBC International super-middleweight champion Rocky Fielding.

And Tony Bellew’s mandatory challenger to the world title, Mairis Briedis (20-0, 17 KOs) of Latvia will box on the undercard, with a view to setting up their clash in early February of next year, providing all goes well for the relevant parties on the night.