“Boys were mentioning something about Zayas. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to go now. Give me Xander Zayas now. Let’s go,’” said Tim Tszyu to Jai McAllister following his recent 10-round unanimous decision victory over Anthony Velasquez on December 17th. “I just beat one Puerto Rican. Let’s go for the main Puerto Rican.
Zayas still needs to get past Baraou before he can consider taking a risky fight against Ennis or Tszyu. The German Baraou showed a lot of heart and aggressiveness in his victory over WBA interim 154-lb champion Yoenis Tellez last August. He walked through every punch the Cuba-born Tellez threw to apply pressure on him.
Baraou’s willingness to take punches to land his own is what makes him a threat to Zayas. What we don’t know is how well he can deal with the holding that Xander will be using. A big part of Zayas’ game is the punch-and-grab.
For Abass to land, he’s going to have to peel Zayas off of him because it’s likely going to be a constant thing. Fighters that are good at working a hand free to negate this tactic, it wouldn’t be a problem for him to punish Xander for holding. We don’t know if Baraou is one of those. If not, it’s going to be a long night for him and a potentially boring fight for the fans.
If Xander can capture the WBA title from Baraou next month, it would make him a two-belt champion, and it would make a fight against ‘Boots’ or Tszyu even bigger.
Zayas captured the vacant WBO junior middleweight title, beating Jorge Garcia Perez by a 12-round unanimous decision last summer on July 26th. Xander’s performance was on the dull side, with a lot of holding and moving.
It was like watching a bigger version of Shakur Stevenson, but with more clinching involved. For Zayas, that was a typical fight for him. He doesn’t have a crowd-pleasing fighting style because he’s unwilling to stand and engage.
Part of the reason for that is a lack of power. He doesn’t possess the power of the fighters like Ennis, Bakhram Murtazaliev, or even Israil Madrimov.
Zayas vs. Baraou will headline in a Top Rank-promoted event on January 31 in Zayas’ home country at the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
