It is the type of fight boxing routinely claims to want and too rarely delivers. When Jaron \u201cBoots\u201d Ennis and Xander Zayas step into the ring at Barclays Center on Saturday night, they will be putting more on the line than their undefeated records. They will be risking the carefully cultivated aura of inevitability that has surrounded both men since they were teenagers.<\/p>\n
In an era when the most promising fighters are routinely steered around danger rather than toward it, Ennis and Zayas have chosen a different road. The result is one of the year\u2019s most compelling fights: a showdown between two undefeated champions tabbed for stardom since adolescence whose reputations still outpace their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s.<\/p>\n
It is also a collision of two of boxing\u2019s most storied lineages. Philadelphia has produced a long line of hard-edged champions such as Joe Frazier, Bernard Hopkins and Danny Garcia, while Puerto Rico gave the sport Wilfredo Ben\u00edtez, F\u00e9lix Trinidad and Miguel Cotto. For years, Ennis and Zayas have been put forth as the respective heirs to those traditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis camp has been phenomenal,\u201d Ennis said at Thursday\u2019s final press conference in Brooklyn. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to show my skills and my ability on Saturday night, show the world I\u2019m the best fighter in the world and become a two-division unified world champion. It\u2019s that time. This is my show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ennis (35-0, 31 KO), the World Boxing Association\u2019s interim champion at 154lb who turns 29 on Friday, has existed in a gnarly boxing purgatory for years. Admired by insiders, feared by opponents and consistently mentioned among the sport\u2019s elite talents, he nevertheless struggled to secure the signature fights that could silence any doubters for good, even after unifying the IBF and WBA belts at 147lb. The situation has drawn comparisons to Terence Crawford\u2019s long road toward a legacy-defining showdown<\/a> with Errol Spence Jr. Ennis appeared trapped in a similar position: dangerous enough to avoid, not yet famous enough to force the issue. Rather than continuing to wait, he\u2019s moved up in weight to campaign in one of the sport\u2019s deepest divisions.<\/p>\n His first outing at super-welterweight did little to answer questions about how he would fare against the division\u2019s elite. Ennis blasted through the badly mismatched Uisma Lima<\/a> in less than two minutes before attention quickly shifted to a far more intriguing target: fellow unbeaten Vergil Ortiz Jr. But that fight unraveled earlier this year amid Ortiz\u2019s contractual dispute with Golden Boy Promotions, a saga that eventually spilled into federal court<\/a>.<\/p>\n Instead of waiting even longer for Ortiz, Ennis pivoted to the division\u2019s other unbeaten titleholder in Zayas, the 23-year-old Puerto Rican star who became boxing\u2019s youngest active world champion<\/a> last summer and has since unified the WBA and World Boxing Organization titles at 154lb. By Thursday, he sounded convinced the timing could not be better.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s work time now,\u201d Ennis said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have some fun, put on a beautiful show and make easy work on Saturday night.<\/p>\n