Unbeaten Olajide to Fight Burton for Vacant Title

NEW YORK — Unbeaten Michael Olajide will fight Richard Burton for the vacant Continental Americas middleweight title Thursday at Madison Square Garden’s Felt Forum.

Olajide, 20-0 with 14 knockouts, is ranked fourth by the International Boxing Federation and sixth by the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association. Burton is 13-3 with 11 knockouts.

Both fighters live in New York. The bout is scheduled for 12 rounds.

In scheduled 10-round bouts, junior lightweight Jackie Beard will meet Dennis Cruz and light heavyweight Chris Reid will fight Jerome Clouden. Maurizio Stecca will fight Cleo Garcia in an eight-round bantamweight fight.

Beard, of Knoxville, Tenn., is 28-2 with 17 knockouts and ranked sixth by the WBC. Cruz, of New York, is 21-2 with 19 knockouts. Reid, of Little Silver, N.J., is 15-0-1 with 13 knockouts and ranked ninth by the WBA. Clouden, of New Orleans, is 21-16 with 14 knockouts, 11 in the first round.

Stecca, the 1984 Olympic bantamweight champion from Italy, is 20-0 with nine knockouts. Garcia, a native of Nicaragua living in Miami, Fla., is 23-16-2.