It has been a long six years for IBF bantamweight champion Ryan Burnett.
In 2011, a serious back injury prevented him from competing at the London Olympics.
In 2012, he failed a brain scan just before his professional debut.
He then became homeless for a six week spell in 2013, after his split with former trainer Ricky Hatton.
Now, just four years later, the 25 year old IBF champion from Belfast is Ireland's only professional world champion and is set for a unification fight on October 21 in his hometown against WBA champion Zhanat Zhakiyanov of Kazakhstan.
This looked like pipe dream's as Burnett’s career looked to be over before he had even landed a punch when a brain scan before his pro debut appeared to show a clogged artery.
He told the Belfast Telegraph afterwards:
We had the date, everything was set. I was in the gym, I was getting fit, everyone was excited about my debut and once I was told the fight was off I was absolutely gutted. Words can’t explain how I was feeling at the time.
The former Olympic Youth gold medalist was unable to fight for over a year until the doctor's gave the Belfast native the all clear in 2013.
His career looked to finally back on track, and he four times under Hatton Promotions.
But having failed to gain too much traction under Hatton, Burnett unexpectedly split from the former world champion's stable.
After the split, Burnett and his father were living in a jeep which Hatton had lent them for a period of six weeks until they figured out their next move.
Speaking with the BBC.com in June, Burnett spoke of living in his car while contemplating their next move,
When I was with Rick, everything was great but it came to a crashing stop when I decided to leave.
Because I wasn't getting any money, I wasn't able to pay my rent and I had to leave where I was living.
We always pretended everything was fine. We were staying in various places in the south of England and we always had somewhere to park up the car. We knew people who would let us into their house to get cleaned up
We were definitely coming to the point when we were thinking that 'something has to happen here'.
It wasn't as rough as what it seems. We just didn't have anywhere to live.
With his career in limbo, Burnett chased down Andy Lee's coach, Adam Booth, to see if he would help resurrect his career, and after one training session with him, Booth agreed to come on board on one condition, that he would have as many fights as he could in one year, without a promoter.
The idea behind that was to create a buzz around himself and then reach out for help from promoters.
Booth and Burnett had six fights as a team before Matchroom boxing and Eddie Hearn signed the boxer to their stable and he made an immediate impact by winning the British bantamweight title in his first fight for the company, when he outscored Jason Booth.
The struggles and hard work were all forgotten for the Belfast native on June 10 2017, when he claimed his first world title in Belfast, flooring his opponent once in the sixth round and once in the 11th before claiming a unanimous points victory over British boxer Lee Haskins.
The Belfast man is set to make history when he fight's for the IBF and WBA bantamweight titles at Belfast's SSE Arena on October 21, with Ireland having never held a unification bout in boxing before.
Oct 21st Ireland will host its first ever unification fight!IBF Champ @ryanburnett01 v WBA king Zhakiyanov at @SSEBelfastArena on @SkySports pic.twitter.com/ICO04oaAoc
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) August 2, 2017
Ironically his opponent Zhakiyanov, (27-1) is trained by none other than Ricky Hatton. So there will be plenty of motivation to get one over on his former promoter and trainer.
Burnett's professional record currently stands at (17-0) and is currently the only reigning world champion that Ireland has, and he will be hoping that it stays way when he fights in October.
Photo: Sportsfile by David Fitzgerald
