Xander Zayas isn’t treating Jaron “Boots” Ennis like the untouchable fighter the boxing world has built him into ahead of their June 27 fight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The undefeated unified 154-pound champion says he sees Ennis as just another man standing in the way of the legacy he’s chasing.
“He breathes the same oxygen I breathe. Bleeds the same way I bleed. There is no difference between him and me,” Zayas tells goat scene when asked about how Ennis fares in next month’s DAZN pay-per-view main event. “I’m afraid of nobody. The only man I’m afraid of is the man upstairs. There’s nobody else I fear. Anyone else, they’ll have to scramble with me.”
Many fighters speak confidently before facing Boots, but most of them still sound cautious when describing him. Not Zayas. This is the interesting part here. He speaks like someone who believes that Ennis is the one to deal with a different kind of problem.
“I don’t think he’s faced a fighter like that before,” Zayas said. “I have great speed, great strength, great defense. I know how to move. I know how to fight. I know how to counter.”
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 that by taking the WBA belt from Abass Baraou earlier this year.
Zayas also made it clear that he’s not obsessed with studying every second of Ennis’ career going forward.
“I saw clips of what I have to do and what we see, but not the whole fight,” he said. “There are problems with every fighter. They all bring something different to the table, and ‘Boots’ Ennis is no exception. He fights right-left, takes good angles. But there are a lot of things I can take advantage of.”
The confidence of Zayas does not come across as false bravado. He sounds more like a young champion who genuinely believes the fear surrounding Ennis has gotten out of hand. June 27 will show if he sees something the rest of the division doesn’t.
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Last updated on 2026/05/28 at 19:11
