Ryan Burnett Becomes New IBF Bantamweight Champion
The bantamweight division has a brand new world champion, and his name is Ryan Burnett.
In front of his hometown fans in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Burnett had an extremely strong showing against now-former champion Lee Haskins, winning the bout via unanimous decision (119-107, 119-107, 118-108).
Burnett, who was coming into the bout with a perfect 16-0 record, knocked down Haskings in the sixth and 11th rounds to seal the decision victory.
There was a bit of controversy when the scores were announced. After the fight ended, the fight was deemed a split decision after judge Clark Sammartino accidentally scored each round the other way, originally giving Haskins the 118-108 decision. The British Boxing Board of Control has told BBC Sport that Sammartino "won't be coming back." The fight result was then changed from a split decision to a unanimous decision.
The IBF sent out a statement saying that there was an "error with the scorecards."
"An error of this nature and at this level of the sport should not have occurred. One of the scores after each round was recorded on the individual scorecards for the incorrect fighter," the statement read.
Burnett had been the British bantamweight champion since 2015 and was a former WBO European and WBC International bantamweight titles. He now joins Zolani Tete (WBO), Zhanat Zhakiyanov (WBA "super"), Jamie McDonnell (WBA "regular") and Shinsuke Yamanaka (WBC) as the world champions for the four major governing bodies for the sport.
