Jaron “Boots” Ennis added to his ever-growing impressive resume last night (Sat., June 27, 2026) by showing out in Brooklyn, New York with a masterful performance against Xander Zayas, the 23-year-old Puerto Rican phenom many have been looking to as the future face of boxing.
From the jump, Ennis set the pace by coming out aggressive, scoring a knockdown early in the opening round. Once Zayas managed to answer the call to continue, Ennis went right back to work in an attempt to get the finish, though Zayas was able to survive the round.
Round two was more of the same, with Boots landing at will, whipping Zayas’ head back with several shots.
In round three, however, the tide quickly turned as Zayas blasted “Boots” with a big left hand that rocked him. Smelling blood, Zayas went in for the finish and started pummeling Ennis with big shots of his own. The referee stepped in to pause the fight for a second to warn Zayas for something we didn’t see. That gave Boots a few seconds to recover, though Zayas once again put his foot on the gas pedal and started wailing away but Ennis was able to escape the round.
After Zayas managed to take round four, he found himself on the receiving end of another one of Ennis’ bombs, tasting the canvas once more after eating a huge uppercut. After barely answering the call before the ref reached the full 10 count, Zayas was allowed to continue, though he looked visibly hurt. Ennis went into full beast mode and started landing one big shot after another, but Zayas was able to show his heart once more to escape the round.
Ennis once again put on a clinic in round six, giving him a comfortable lead going into the second half of the fight. But once round seven came around, Ennis took his attack up another level, clipping the champion with nasty combinations and a big body shot and then a hook that forced him to take a knee, giving Jaron his third knockdown of the fight. That was all Zayas’ corner needed to see as they quickly stepped in to protect their fighter and put an end to the fight.
With the victory, Ennis wins the WBO and WBO Light Middleweight titles and improves to 36-0, which sets him up for an even bigger fight moving forward, which should be against none other than Virgil Ortiz, who is the current WBC interim champion with an undefeated record of 24-0. This is a fight that was in talks for some time now, though it ultimately ran into a hurdle after Ortiz got involved in a legal battle with his promoter, Oscar de la Hoya.
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