BROOKLYN, New York \u2013 What a fight. Those present here at the Barclays Center will not forget the magic of what happened when the new unified 154lbs champion Jaron Ennis and Xander Zayas tore into one another for seven rounds, and neither will the fighters.<\/p>\n
Despite going down three times in all, Zayas forced \u201cBoots\u201d to show that Philadelphia warrior mentality and dig deeper than he\u2019d had to in his 36-fight career.<\/p>\n
The third round was worthy of a chef\u2019s kiss for those who like the momentum of their boxing fights to violently swing one way and then another. The 29-year-old Ennis had to hold and battle back as the Puerto Rican threatened to swamp him with power and pressure after rocking him to his boots.<\/p>\n
Because before that, it looked like it might be the procession some felt it could be.<\/p>\n
There were several lively exchanges with both working up and down in the opening round and the crowd was absolutely electric.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoots\u201d dropped Zayas for the first time with a flashy straight left following a stop-start barrage of right hooks and left hands. The Puerto Rican was eventually dumped by the final left hand of the sequence.<\/p>\n
Ennis was firmly in the ascendancy, rattling Zayas with a right hook with only a few seconds left in the round.<\/p>\n
Zayas looked shell-shocked in his corner and he tried to meet fire with fire in the second, but his courage was not the antidote to Ennis\u2019 speed or variety. Ennis was having his way with Zayas both as an orthodox fighter and when he fought as a left-hander.<\/p>\n
While Zayas was still in there pitching, there was an air of inevitability about the fight\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n
Because in the third, Zayas rocked Boots with a thudding right hand and backed the Philadelphian up, forcing him to hold. The crowd came unglued and roared while Ennis, scrambling to survive, was in real trouble, gamely firing back in a groggy state.<\/p>\n
The Barclays Center vibrated with noise.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s hurt, he\u2019s hurt,\u201d screamed one reporter next to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a round,\u201d shrieked another, and at the bell both fighters walked unsteadily back to their corners.<\/p>\n
Instead of a breakout fight for Ennis, a fight had broken out.<\/p>\n
The pace only picked up in the fourth. \u201cBoots\u201d shoe-shined the body, pivoted and worked angles, Zayas planted his feet and let the bombs go.<\/p>\n
Ennis went orthodox and swallowed down a double jab-right hand when he changed, but was soon clubbing Zayas with right hooks around his guard.<\/p>\n
It was violent. It was gripping. The sense of anticipation and excitement in the air in the arena is exactly why addicts like me can\u2019t kick the boxing habit.<\/p>\n
You had no idea how the fight was going to unfold.<\/p>\n
The hits kept coming and as the fighters stormed out to collide at the start of the fifth, the energy was the same.<\/p>\n
They both landed rights at the same time, but it was Ennis who pressed his superiority, as he dropped Zayas again, this time with a lead right uppercut, only it was harder than the first knockdown of the fight. Zayas was dumped on the seat of his pants for the referee\u2019s count and he took his time before rising.<\/p>\n
The remainder of the round was one-sided. Zayas looked like a spent bullet. He struggled to fight through the sludge his legs appeared to be stuck in and his arms were equally heavy.<\/p>\n
He survived a doctor\u2019s inspection at the start of the sixth and the crowd now cheered \u201cBoots, Boots, Boots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Promoter Eddie Hearn had saluted Zayas for having \u201cbig balls\u201d for taking the fight and Zayas displayed that heart through the sixth as he tried to steady the ship.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoots\u201d stalked him now, and the sixth was a quieter round. God knows they needed one.<\/p>\n
But Ennis had no intention of taking his foot off the gas for long and he started the seventh bashing right hands into Zayas\u2019 side and face. The Puerto Rican struggled to contain Ennis\u2019 hooks around the side of his guard and, with Zayas trapped on the ropes, Ennis kept blasting him with both hands until Zayas wilted. This time, he wasn\u2019t allowed to go on.<\/p>\n
It had been breathless, but it was finally all over at 1:49 of the seventh.<\/p>\n
As if the Barclays couldn\u2019t get any noisier, an enthusiastic hum exploded in appreciation at what they had seen and while Ennis rightly got his flowers, Zayas was soon waving to the crowd and thanking them, perhaps for giving him the strength to get a foothold in the fight when all seemed so lost early on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the most exciting, thrilling fights I\u2019ve ever seen at ringside,\u201d said promoter Eddie Hearn, who paid tribute to both his fighter, Ennis, and Top Rank\u2019s Zayas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what big-time boxing is all about,\u201d Hearn added, talking about Ennis showing grit and having to fight through adversity.<\/p>\n
Ennis, now a sparkling 36-0 (32 KOs) and a unified champion at 147 and 154, is still only 29 and will be hungry for more big nights like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel tremendous hearing \u2018and the new unified world champion at 154,\u2019\u201d he beamed afterwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put on a show for the fans and I appreciated him taking this, because he didn\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about what he had expected from Zayas tonight, he just grinned: \u201cI knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zayas, clearly proud of his effort \u2013 and rightly so \u2013 thanked the crowd for their support.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an amazing night,\u201d he lamented. \u201cI showed if you dream big, sometimes you fall short, but it\u2019s part of the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tonight, Zayas had been tasked with not only making Ennis look beatable, but making Ennis look mortal.<\/p>\n
Rapped to the ring by Jadakiss, Ennis summoned the boos at the Barclays as he stood on the ring apron before stepping through the ropes, but he backed it all up in the ring.<\/p>\n
So much of Ennis\u2019 reputation beforehand was based on gym lore, and what he\u2019s done on the way up behind closed doors. Boxing needed him to be that guy tonight in the hope that he would be the guy in the future.<\/p>\n
Zayas, now 23-1 (13 KOs) and still only 23, saluted the fans and paid tribute to them for forcing Ennis to fight in a New York cauldron, but it was gladiator Zayas who made him come through the fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROOKLYN, New York \u2013 What a fight. Those present here at the Barclays Center will not forget the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21264],"tags":[3343,33050,120,119,118,18043,33049],"class_list":["post-72450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barclays","tag-barclays","tag-boots-ennis","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-eddie-hearn","tag-xander-zayas"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116832070867045172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}