{"id":531440,"date":"2026-04-15T03:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T03:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/531440\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T03:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T03:02:09","slug":"oscar-de-la-hoya-predicts-jaron-ennis-vs-xander-zayas-i-give-him-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/531440\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar De La Hoya predicts Jaron Ennis vs Xander Zayas: “I give him the edge”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar De La Hoya<\/a> has offered his take on Xander Zayas<\/a> vs Jaron Ennis<\/a>, which takes place at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, on June 27.<\/p>\n

Some have suggested that this is too much, too soon for Zayas, who, despite being the defending champion, is yet to firmly cement himself at world level.<\/p>\n

The Puerto Rican claimed his WBO super-welterweight strap last June, convincingly outpointing Jorge Garcia Perez<\/a> \u2013 a fringe contender \u2013 to secure the vacant world title.<\/p>\n

This was then followed by a more impressive victory over Abass Baraou<\/a>, against whom he edged a split decision after producing a polished display in January.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Zayas became the youngest current unified champion in the men\u2019s ranks, and has now admirably agreed to defend his WBO and WBA titles against Ennis.<\/p>\n

Despite a lack of notable names on his resume, Ennis boasts the greater experience with an extra 12 professional outings under his belt.<\/p>\n

Additionally, many would argue that \u2018Boots\u2019 possesses a superior skillset to Zayas, who has bags of potential but is yet to fully refine his craft.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Sean Zittel<\/a>, though, boxing legend De La Hoya highlights the momentum and style of Ennis as two important factors, while also acknowledging the manner in which he has defeated each opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cStylistically, it\u2019s a great matchup. I think \u2018Boots\u2019 is very talented. He\u2019s in his prime, obviously.<\/p>\n

\u201c[But] he\u2019s facing a guy who knows how to use his distance and throws hard punches, combinations\u2026 He has the will to win. I think this is going to be a great fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to win \u2013 it\u2019s tough to call \u2013 but you might have to give the edge to \u2018Boots\u2019, just because he\u2019s on a roll.<\/p>\n

\u201cStylistically, I think I\u2019ll have to give a little edge [to Ennis].\u201d<\/p>\n

This represents Ennis\u2019 second outing since moving up from 147lbs, where he became the unified champion with a sixth-round finish over Eimantas Stanionis last year. The winner will likely look to further unify the belts against fellow champions at 154, Sebastian Fundora and Josh Kelly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar De La Hoya has offered his take on Xander Zayas vs Jaron Ennis, which takes place at…\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":{"0":"post-531440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531440","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=531440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531440\/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=531440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}