Boots Ennis Overpowers Xander Zayas After Early Knockdown Changes Fight - Pound4Pound.com

Boots Ennis Overpowers Xander Zayas
After Early Knockdown Changes Fight

By William Trillo
Photos: Matchroom

There are losing performances in boxing where a fighter simply runs into a better opponent and walks away knowing he was outclassed by superior talent.

Then there are nights like Saturday evening at Barclays Center where a talented undefeated young fighter manages to lose the fight almost immediately, not because he lacked ability, courage or preparation, but because for reasons known only to himself, he abandoned the exact strategy responsible for carrying him undefeated to the biggest moment of his career.

For Xander Zayas, the lesson was painful, immediate and brutally unforgiving.

Entering the biggest fight of his young career sporting a pristine 23-0 record, thirteen knockouts and holding both the WBO and WBA junior middleweight titles, Zayas had spent years building a reputation as one of boxing’s more polished young technicians, a slick boxer whose movement, ring intelligence and ability to utilize every available inch of canvas had allowed him to systematically outmaneuver opponents while avoiding the type of unnecessary exchanges that often shorten careers and rearrange futures.

So naturally, when standing opposite one of boxing’s most physically gifted finishers in Jaron Ennis, Zayas made the curious decision to immediately abandon every bit of that identity and engage in a toe-to-toe firefight from the opening bell.

It proved disastrous almost instantly.

Barely two minutes into the opening round, Ennis uncorked a crushing left hand that deposited Zayas flat on the canvas, immediately shifting the trajectory of the entire evening while serving as a violent reminder that in boxing, discretion occasionally remains the far better part of valor.

There are moments in prize fighting when bravado can elevate a fighter.

There are other moments when bravado quietly becomes self-destruction wearing boxing gloves.

Saturday night belonged firmly to the latter.

To his credit, Zayas recovered far better than many fighters would have after such a violent opening statement, but as he admitted afterward, whatever equilibrium he had carried into the contest never fully returned.

“He hurt me in the first round, so my legs went away for a couple rounds,” Zayas said following the fight. “I think in round three or four I hurt him. I tried to walk him down and get my legs back under me, but he got me again. It’s part of the business, you learn and you come back.”

And to be fair, there was a brief moment where the entire fight threatened to shift dramatically.

Round three may very well end up finding its place among the year’s best.

After weathering the early storm and surviving the opening knockdown, Zayas suddenly found success, catching Ennis with a sharp right hand that visibly hurt him and briefly changed the complexion of the fight. For several thrilling moments the young Puerto Rican appeared on the verge of pulling off a remarkable turnaround, aggressively pressing forward while sensing vulnerability from a man few fighters have ever successfully backed up.

For one electrifying stretch, the tide genuinely seemed to turn.

Then reality re-entered the equation.

Ennis weathered the storm beautifully, regained control late in the round and began reestablishing exactly why oddsmakers had installed him as a prohibitive favorite despite entering the contest as challenger.

Following the fourth round, Ennis’ corner could be heard growing increasingly frustrated, repeatedly imploring him to let his hands go and stop allowing the fight to drift into prolonged exchanges.

To Ennis’ own admission, he had been enjoying himself a little too much.

“I was enjoying myself putting on a show for the fans,” Ennis said afterward. “I got the job done. I wasn’t listening to my corner a bit, but I started listening towards the end, and that’s how I got the job done.”

The moment he began listening, the fight was effectively over.

Ennis emerged aggressively in round five and quickly found the opening his corner had been demanding, landing another devastating shot that sent Zayas crashing to the canvas for the second time.

At that point survival had quietly replaced strategy.

To his immense credit, Zayas somehow fought through the remainder of the round and managed to continue extending the contest, but from that moment forward the body language told a story every experienced fight observer immediately recognized.

He was no longer fighting to win.

He was fighting to endure.

And against a puncher like Ennis, endurance eventually expires.

The inevitable arrived midway through round seven.

After absorbing sustained punishment and unable to offer meaningful resistance, Zayas hit the canvas for the third time at the 1:49 mark of the round before his corner mercifully intervened, throwing in the towel and sparing their young fighter from the sort of unnecessary damage that serves absolutely no purpose once the outcome has already announced itself.

Ennis improved to a frightening 36-0 with 32 knockouts, successfully moving up to junior middleweight and leaving Barclays Center carrying both championship belts around his waist while reminding the rest of the division that his power appears to have followed him north without losing so much as an ounce of destructive intent.

As for Zayas, defeat often teaches lessons victory has little interest in offering, and to his credit the young Puerto Rican handled the first loss of his professional career with the kind of maturity that suggests this setback may ultimately serve him better than another easy night collecting belts.

“I showed tonight that I dream big,” Zayas said afterward. “Sometimes you come up short, but it’s part of the journey.”

And perhaps that statement revealed more about his future than the defeat itself ever could, because talent was never what betrayed him Saturday night, nor was it heart or courage. Those qualities remained fully intact from opening bell to final stoppage.

What ultimately failed him was something far simpler.

Judgment.

For reasons only he can explain, a fighter whose undefeated career had been built on movement, discipline and intelligent ring generalship made the inexplicable decision to stand directly in front of one of boxing’s most dangerous finishers and willingly engage in the exact type of fight that heavily favored the man standing across from him.

Against ordinary opposition, perhaps recklessness can occasionally be forgiven.

Against elite fighters, poor decisions tend to arrive carrying consequences. Saturday offered a painful reminder of that reality.

Sometimes the difference between victory and defeat is not preparation.

Not talent.

Not desire.

Sometimes the fight is lost the moment a boxer forgets exactly who he is.

And on Saturday night, somewhere between the opening bell and that devastating first round left hand, Xander Zayas forgot entirely what had brought him to the dance in the first place.

Jaron Ennis simply made certain he paid dearly for remembering too late.