As rumoured yesterday, Eddie Hearn tonight confirmed the signing of Belfast bantamweight starlet Ryan Burnett to a “long term promotional deal.”

Burnett [11(9)-0], the current WBO European champion, is a training partner of WBO middleweight champ Andy Lee and is regarded as one of, if not the, hottest prospects in Irish boxing.

The signing of the Adam Booth-trained 23 year old could herald the return of Sky Sports and Matchroom to Belfast as Hearn looks to build Burnett into a World champion in the very near future.

The 2010 Youth Olympic gold medalist was delighted with the news, explaining that “I’m very happy to be signing with Matchroom,”

“As we said a year ago, we would build me before we looked at promoters, things with Adam have gone perfectly and to plan. Now we are looking to open the doors to big things and Eddie is the man to do that very thing”

“I have an amazing team around me and now it’s all about opening the right doors and I’m 100 per cent sure with the team around me I’ll become a World champion.”

Watch some of Ryan Burnett’s big KOs below: