NEW YORK — In a blink, Xander Zayas felt back there again; back to being that skinny, scrawny, shy kid in the Canteras neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico, sheltering himself from the bullies. When he was around five, Zayas wanted to just be a child and play. There were some larger, older kids who prevented him from doing that. They dumped him in dirt pits. They shoved him around. Zayas would come home bruised and swollen, though more damaged by a scarred psyche than a black eye.
Yaitza, his mother, was not having it. So, she took her son to a local boxing gym, with Xander kicking and screaming along the way. Zayas was getting beat up outside his house, and found himself, even at five, getting pounded by a girl in the gym, too. In time, he grew to love boxing. In time, he learned to face and vanquish the bullies.
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This time, Zayas (23-0, 13 KOs) feels he is confronted by another bully, in the form of Jaron “Boots” Ennis, the former IBF and WBA welterweight titlist. This time, Zayas, the 23-year-old unified WBA and WBO 154-pound world champion, plans on punching back when he defends his belts against Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs) on Saturday night at Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, live on DAZN.
“That’s the way I see it, [Ennis] is trying to bully me,” Zayas says. “I’ve been bullied enough early in my life, and it’s why I say he is dealing with someone and something he knows nothing about. He has no idea what he is walking into. That little 5-year-old still lives deep down inside me. He fights against bullies every day. Never test a kid who has been bullied. Boxing put me where I am today. As a kid, my mom took me to the boxing gym, and I would get beat up there, too, but little by little, I began to get more confident.”
Xander Zayas is already a unified world champion at age 23.
(Al Bello via Getty Images)
It’s why today Zayas doesn’t really say much to opposing fighters at pre-fight press conferences, because he knows most fighters are broken in one way or another — like he was at five.
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“Boxing made me better in every way, I fell in love hitting the heavy bag, going on morning runs, and becoming a man, even though I used to get beat up by a girl when I first got in the gym,” recalls Zayas, laughing hysterically. “Oh, I got no breaks. Things went bad to worse. I had to grow up. I got beat up and kept going back. Even on the days I didn’t want to train, even today there are days I don’t want to train, I keep going back and working. It develops confidence and discipline. It shows the difference between me and other fighters.
“It’s why I say Ennis has no idea what he is up against. He’s never had to deal with what I had to deal with. I can still see some of those kids picking on me, shoving me, spitting on me. You remember those things. I have a feeling I’ll be seeing a few of those kids in the ring when I face Ennis. He’s making a mistake because he sees me as this little kid. Let him. I’m bigger and stronger than he is. I’ll be bigger the night of the fight. He’s just coming up to 154 [pounds]. I’ve been here. He hardly had one fight at 154. I’m so far ahead of him, I only needed 23 fights to unify a title and he needed 35.
“His biggest weakness is looking past me,” Zayas adds. “He may see me as this little kid, 23, but notice when we stood next to each other — who was bigger? I was. And I’m going to be much bigger than him on fight night. He’s going to find out what I am about.”
Zayas deserves a mountain of credit, because he was the one who initiated this Ennis fight. When he heard in March that the Ennis vs. Vergil Ortiz Jr. negotiations were falling apart, due to Ortiz’s promoter Golden Boy Promotions obtaining a restraining order to halt the bout, Zayas contacted his promoter Top Rank to make the Ennis fight. Top Rank executives admitted they tried to talk Zayas out of the fight.
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Zayas staunchly forged ahead.
“That comes from the great belief Xander has in himself,” says Javiel Centeno, Zayas’ trainer who has known the young Puerto Rican fighter since his youth. “We always knew Xander was a big boy, and we know he is bigger than ‘Boots.’ Come fight night, he will be much bigger. I hate to hear people talk about Xander’s defense, because throughout his entire career, he has hardly lost six rounds.
“Xander is showing an edge. I’m actually surprised by this side of Xander. He’s always been self-motivated.”
Although they are each listed at 5-foot-10, Ennis might be closer to 5-foot-11, with a 74-inch reach, and can fight from both an orthodox stance and as a southpaw, while Zayas might be closer to 6-foot and also has a 74-inch reach, though he is naturally left-handed and fights right-handed, making his dominant hand his jab hand. Zayas has only stopped just one of his last five opponents.
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But the young champ thinks he has one distinct advantage over Ennis.
Jaron Ennis has long been considered the future of American boxing.
(Mark Robinson via Getty Images)
“Ennis is underestimating me,” Zayas says. “He’s underestimating me, and he’s going to pay for that. Let him carry that attitude in the ring. I’m going to rip his heart out. I told you. I told everyone.”
Ennis is very skilled. He’s an aggressive, rhythmic fighter who is willing to take risks, and absorb some shots to do it. Zayas, considered the underdog, will need to break up Ennis’ rhythm by negating his lethal jab with counter jabs to the body. Impatience is possibly a rare flaw Ennis possesses. It could be a 50-50 crowd at Barclays in support of both fighters, with a strong Puerto Rican contingent showing up for the highly likable Zayas, and a solid crew from Philadelphia trekking up the New Jersey Turnpike to support Ennis.
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Ennis, however, sometimes plays to the crowd. If he makes that mistake Saturday night, looking to load up on a shot in hoping for a knockout, Zayas has the quickness, speed and skill to make him pay.
Entering the fight, the Top Rank hierarchy, which has promoted Zayas throughout his career, has always believed this was a win-win for their fighter. They say it is equal to when Saul “Canelo” Alvarez took on a prime Floyd Mayweather Jr. early in his career, suffering his first loss in 2013 by majority decision. Mayweather was 36 at the time, and Alvarez was just 23, like Zayas. Alvarez has since called that one of the most important nights of his career and said it taught him valuable lessons about being on the big stage.
“I’m locked in and ready,” Zayas said a month ago. “Losing is not even a thought.”
Zayas stressed the advantage lies with him, because Ennis will be fighting two opponents Saturday night — an athletic unified world champion and an angry 5-year-old who was once bullied and longs for revenge.
It could be a lethal combination.
