{"id":701134,"date":"2026-05-29T08:12:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/701134\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T08:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:12:24","slug":"xander-zayas-refuses-to-fear-boots-ennis-before-june-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/701134\/","title":{"rendered":"Xander Zayas Refuses To Fear Boots Ennis Before June 27"},"content":{"rendered":"

Xander Zayas isn\u2019t treating Jaron \u201cBoots\u201d Ennis like the untouchable fighter the boxing world has built him into ahead of their June 27 fight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The unbeaten unified 154-pound champion says he sees Ennis as just another man standing in the way of the legacy he\u2019s chasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe breathes the same oxygen I breathe. Bleeds the same way I bleed. There\u2019s no difference in him and me,\u201d said Zayas to BoxingScene<\/a> when asked about facing Ennis in next month\u2019s DAZN pay-per-view main event. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of anybody. The only man I\u2019m scared of is the man upstairs. There\u2019s no one else I fear. Anybody else, they\u2019re going to have to hustle with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of fighters talk confidently before facing Boots, but most of them still sound careful when describing him. Zayas doesn\u2019t. That\u2019s the interesting part here. He\u2019s speaking like someone who believes Ennis is the one about to deal with a different kind of problem.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s faced a fighter like that yet,\u201d said Zayas. \u201cI\u2019ve got great speed, great power, good defense. I know how to move. I know how to fight. I know how to counter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ennis enters the fight with the bigger reputation and the heavier knockout numbers, but Zayas has quietly built confidence through his recent performances. He captured the WBO title with a decision over Jorge Garcia Perez and followed it by taking the WBA belt from Abass Baraou earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Zayas also made it clear he isn\u2019t obsessing over studying every second of Ennis\u2019 career heading into the bout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen clips of what I need to do and what we\u2019re seeing, but not the whole fight,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s difficulties with every fighter. They all bring something different to the table, and \u2018Boots\u2019 Ennis is not the exception. He fights righty-lefty, takes good angles. But there\u2019s lots of things I can take advantage of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confidence from Zayas doesn\u2019t come across as fake bravado. He sounds more like a young champion who genuinely believes the fear around Ennis has gotten out of control. June 27 will show whether he\u2019s seeing something the rest of the division doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Robert Segal is a boxing journalist at Boxing News 24 with more than a decade of experience covering fight news, previews, and analysis. Known for his straightforward reporting and ringside perspective, he delivers authoritative coverage of champions, contenders, and emerging talent worldwide.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\tCategories Jaron Ennis<\/a>, Xander Zayas<\/a> \t\t<\/p>\n

Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb Jaron Ennis<\/a> \u00bb Xander Zayas Refuses to Fear Jaron \u201cBoots\u201d Ennis<\/p>\n

Last Updated on 2026\/05\/28 at 7:11 PM \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xander Zayas isn\u2019t treating Jaron \u201cBoots\u201d Ennis like the untouchable fighter the boxing world has built him into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-701134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701134","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=701134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}