Amanda Serrano sold out Madison Square Garden alongside Katie Taylor<\/a>. Serrano enjoyed a noisy and passionate majority of the support inside the arena during her loss to the Irish fighter, but Zayas doesn\u2019t assume that following will naturally move his way.<\/p>\n\u201cI can only do what I can do in the ring,\u201d he explained. \u201cI can train hard and be prepared for every fight, but I can\u2019t decide on my supporters what title I am given. But, of course, if the fans want to label me as the next Puerto Rican star to follow, then I would be honored.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miguel Cotto, Hector Camacho, Felix \u201cTito\u201d Trinidad, Wilfredo Gomez and Serrano are just some of the names that Zayas is happy to label as inspirations ahead of his maiden world title challenge this Saturday night, but his grounding has ultimately come from his parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am always trying to learn \u2014 whether that\u2019s from my parents or other pro athletes that have shared experiences,” he says. “But the main thing in life is having that respect for other people. If you want to be respected yourself, then you have to show respect to others, and that\u2019s something I live by. We are all human beings. I am not better or more important than anyone else, so why would I act that way?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Since turning professional in 2019, Zayas has built a perfect 21-0 record under the watchful eye of his Top Rank promoters. He was the youngest fighter to sign with Bob Arum\u2019s stable since its 1973 inception, and on Saturday night, all those in the Xander Zayas business are hopeful of finishing this first chapter of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been very smooth up until now,\u201d he admits. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken all the necessary steps to earn this position and have made sure that we are ready when it arrives. And that time is now. When I win on Saturday I think it\u2019s going to take a while to sink in \u2014 right now, I am just trying to treat this like any other fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean I can\u2019t start thinking about what a world championship win would mean to me. It would be the start of a new chapter \u2014 the era of Xander Zayas as a world champion. But that won\u2019t stop the hunger inside of me.<\/p>\n
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Xander Zayas beat Slawa Spomer at The Theater at Madison Square Garden this past February in New York City.<\/p>\n
(Al Bello via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cI share a saying with my Dad. He\u2019ll tell me \u2018the world is yours,\u2019 and I\u2019ll reply with \u2018the world is ours.\u2019 In this fight, it\u2019s our for the taking. Our family unit is so strong that Perez doesn’t just have to beat me, he has to beat the whole team. That\u2019s what makes us so strong. Everyone in the team has a specific job and they all do it to an extremely high level. So when I step into that ring, I know that I never have to do it alone. And that\u2019s powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Perez is six years the senior of Zayas and has been raised as a Mexican fighter in the traditional school of hard knocks. A career-best split-decision win over the highly-rated Charles Conwell in April delivered this opportunity for \u201cChino,\u201d and it also represents the latest chapter in the long-standing rivalry between Puerto Rican and Mexican fighters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always going to be fireworks when we [Puerto Ricans and Mexicans] fight,\u201d Zayas says. “So don\u2019t expect this one to be any different. I am going out there to enjoy myself, but of course we have a strict game plan that we are looking to execute.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerez has shown himself as a good fighter, especially against Conwell. He has a good body attack, can be a dangerous pressure fighter and is lanky, but I believe that I am better than him in every aspect of the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeed, power, combination punching, hand movement, foot movement, counter punching \u2014 I am superior in all these fields. He\u2019s a Mexican warrior so it\u2019s not going to be easy to make him quit, but I am going out there to prove why I am on a different level to everyone else at 154 pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The fire alarm in Zayas\u2019 hotel room goes off as our conversation is partially interrupted, but he remains composed and unflappable. For him, the timing is perfect. An attempt to goad him into conversations about future fights in the division is muffled, and can wait, for now.<\/p>\n
Asked whether it means more if he were to become the youngest active male champion in the world at age 22, he shrugs his shoulders \u2014 it\u2019s as if he has matured so quickly that age is all but a number.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really doesn\u2019t matter what people think of me or say about me,\u201d he concludes. \u201cI have one job to do and, so far, I am doing it perfectly. Saturday night is just another opportunity for me to do so, and if I am successful then I\u2019ll be even hungry for more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xander Zayas isn\u2019t a normal 22-year-old. The unbeaten Puerto Rican star, based out of Florida, sits upright in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[11041,19486,703,49,48,19485,167,475,3980,19484,82,17571],"class_list":["post-23923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-amanda-serrano","tag-american-bank-center","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-jorge-garcia-perez","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-puerto-rican","tag-sports","tag-xander-zayas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}