Jesse Burnett

Jesse Burnett (born February 8, 1946 in Los Angeles, California) was a light-heavyweight and cruiserweight boxer. His professional record was 23-18-2 with 11 knockouts. He is best remembered as the spoiler who won a twelve round decision in a WBC cruiserweight elimination bout over former world light-heavyweight champion Victor Galindez of Argentina in 1980, sending Galindez into retirement. In Burnett's two tries at a world title, he was stopped in the ninth round of a 1977 vacant WBC light-heavyweight title bout by Miguel Angel Cuello, and stopped in the eighth round of a 1980 WBC cruiserweight title bout against S.T. Gordon. Burnett also fought such other fighters as former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, former light-heavyweight champion John Conteh (Burnett earned a ten round draw), former light-heavyweight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, and other contenders such as Yaqui Lopez, James Scott, Jerry Martin, Tony Mundine, Bash Ali, Willie Edwards, Mustafa Wassaja, Willie Edwards, Lotte Mwale, and many others. This was before he married Polita then went into retirement. He has two wonderful children, Jesse Jr. and Stephanie. Due to his boxing career, Jesse was able to travel to faraway and distant lands such as Europe as well as small ones such as Belize, where he was able to meet in-laws that also grew into legends. Stars such as his stepson Liberato, a successful businessman, and a brother-in-law Leroy McKenzie better known as Sarge, one of the best in Belizean soccer and a legend in Belize.

Jesse often paced himself out of a lot of wins due to his frequent 'short notice conditioning'. He would hold back a lot so as not to 'gas-out' during a contest, which in a few he did. Also, his arsenal was almost void of one of the best punches in boxing, the left hook, which was laid dormant by his right leaning style.