{"id":671116,"date":"2026-05-14T20:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/671116\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T20:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:36:10","slug":"jaron-ennis-vacating-belt-ahead-of-xander-zayas-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/671116\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaron Ennis Vacating Belt Ahead of Xander Zayas Title Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"4q\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/boxing\/xander-zayas-putting-154-pound-titles-on-the-line-against-jaron-boots-ennis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Xander Zayas vs. Jaron Ennis<\/a> will no longer be a title unification bout.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"4t\">As the WBA and WBO super welterweight champion, Zayas&#8217; titles will be on the line when one of the biggest title fights of the year goes down on June 27. However, Ennis is vacating the WBA interim 154-pound belt to compete for Zayas&#8217; full title, according to BoxingScene.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"4w\">The belts would have been unified anyway, but Ennis&#8217; title is instead just getting scrapped ahead of the fight.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jaron Ennis has vacated his WBA interim 154lb title in order to compete for both Xander Zayas\u2019 WBO and WBA belts.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ZayasEnnis?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#ZayasEnnis<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IK1mlqRZmc\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/IK1mlqRZmc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BoxingScene.com (@boxingscene) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/boxingscene\/status\/2054916441845924009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"52\">Following the news of Ennis&#8217; vacation, the WBA did not announce whether it would keep the interim belt open or scrap it altogether. Regardless of who wins the June 27 title fight, the WBA could still opt to crown another interim champion later in the year.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"55\">Prior to vacating the belt, Ennis was one of two interim champions in the super welterweight division. Vergil Ortiz Jr. still owns the WBC interim 154-pound title as he deals with a headache-inducing legal situation with his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"58\">Ennis has now vacated a title for the second time in as many fights. He previously dropped the IBF, WBA and The Ring welterweight titles when he moved up to 154 pounds to face Eimantas Stanionis in his divisional debut.<\/p>\n<p>Xander Zayas vs. Jaron Ennis to crown true 154-pound king<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/01k153dk3bmt4ahtn2ga.jpg\" alt=\"Xander Zayas\" title=\"Xander Zayas\" width=\"360\" height=\"203\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"5l\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WBA and WBO welterweight champion Xander Zayas | Courtesy: Mikey Williams\/Top Rank<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5p\">Ennis vacating his interim title does nothing to change the magnitude of his upcoming bout with Zayas. The winner will still be able to officially stake his claim as the true super welterweight champion, even if he would not be the undisputed king.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5s\">Zayas currently owns two of the division&#8217;s five titles after taking the WBA belt from Abass Baraou in his most recent outing. Ennis is only 1-0 in the division, but a win over Zayas, whom many view as arguably the best fighter in the division, would already put him above the rest of the pack.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5v\">Both Zayas and Ennis have added that they seek unification status following their massive fight. Ennis&#8217; father, Bozy Ennis, specifically stated that he is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/boxing\/jaron-ennis-father-names-top-target-at-154-lbs--not-xander-zayas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">eyeing WBC champion Sebastian Fundora<\/a> after beating Zayas. Bozy Ennis praised Fundora as the best fighter in the division.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5y\">If nothing else, the Zayas-Ennis matchup provides both champions with an opportunity to vault themselves into becoming a pay-per-view star. The division has lacked top-end star power since Terence Crawford moved up to beat Israil Madrimov in August 2024, one fight before he moved up two more divisions and beat Canelo Alvarez in one of the biggest events in recent boxing history.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xander Zayas vs. Jaron Ennis will no longer be a title unification bout. As the WBA and WBO&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-671116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}