{"id":528905,"date":"2026-04-13T17:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528905\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T17:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:56:07","slug":"shakur-stevenson-predicts-xander-zayas-vs-jaron-ennis-hes-the-hardest-at-154","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528905\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson predicts Xander Zayas vs Jaron Ennis: “He’s the hardest at 154”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In less than three months\u2019 time, Xander Zayas<\/a> and Jaron Ennis<\/a> put their undefeated records on the line against one another, and pound-for-pound superstar Shakur Stevenson<\/a> has offered his fight prediction.<\/p>\n

Ennis was a unified world champion in the welterweight division, but moved up to the super-welterweight scene back in October and knocked out Uisma Lima in the opening round of his 154lb debut<\/a>. Now, \u2018Boots\u2019 is believed by many to be the top player at his new weight, but he currently lacks the belts to back up those plaudits.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico fan-favourite Zayas became boxing\u2019s youngest unified world champion when he decisioned Jorge Garcia Perez and Abass Baraou<\/a> in consecutive bouts, getting his hands on both the WBO and then WBA world titles.<\/p>\n

Against Ennis, Zayas has the chance to prove to the world that he is the best super-welterweight on the planet, despite being just 23-years-old, but with his relative inexperience on the big stage, it is the Philadelphian who will enter the bout as the favourite.<\/p>\n

On social media<\/a>, WBO super-lightweight champion Stevenson agreed with the oddsmakers\u2019 opinion, giving Zayas respect for accepting the fight but siding with his fellow American when predicting the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cRespect to Xander, hellavu young fighter with the heart of a lion for accepting this fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more fighters like him in boxing, win or lose, he like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoots different tho, he\u2019s the hardest fighter to deal with at that weight IMO.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zayas-Ennis takes place on Saturday, June 27, as both men chase a legacy-defining win that will earn them pound-for-pound recognition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In less than three months\u2019 time, Xander Zayas and Jaron Ennis put their undefeated records on the line…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-528905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}