Jaron “Boots” Ennis secured the pole position atop the 154-pound division on Saturday and he did it the hard way by fighting in the trenches and walking through unified champion Xander Zayas in their thrilling slugfest in Brooklyn, New York.
Ennis (36-0, 32 KOs) exited the Barclays Center to a chorus of boos from the partisan, Puerto Rican crowd as the WBA and WBO champion after scoring a trio of knockdowns and surviving a hellacious Round 3 in which he was hurt. But after multiple rounds of toe-to-toe fighting between the two elite boxers, the corner of Zayas (23-1, 13 KOs) threw in the towel at 1:49 of Round 7 as Ennis was pouring it on.
Not only did the sublime Ennis, a native of nearby Philadelphia, get hit more than we were used to seeing, the 23-year-old Zayas showcased a strong chin and tremendous courage that raised his stock in defeat.
“It feels tremendous,” Ennis said. “[Zayas] wanted to test himself against one of the best in the division and I commend him for that. This was a dream. I was having fun putting on a show for the fans and I got the job done.
“It’s a blessing to be a two-time unified champion.”
The 29-year-old Ennis, who previously held a pair of titles at 147 pounds but was unable to lure any of the elite champions into fights, appeared to cement his status as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world in the biggest fight of his pro career.
Once the naturally orthodox Ennis switched to southpaw midway through Round 1, he began to hurt Zayas with a flurry of clean combinations and uppercuts to the body. He dropped Zayas on a pair of quick left hands to build an early lead.
But just as Ennis began to flaunt his impressive footwork and variety of attacks by dancing and showboating in Round 3, Zayas bit down on the mouthguard to eat a right hand before countering with a right of his own to the chin of Ennis to hurt him. A back-and-forth slugfest ensued in close space through Round 4 as Zayas scored big to the body and Ennis chose to stand and trade instead of holding and boxing.
“[Ennis] hurt me a little bit in the first round so my legs went away for a couple of rounds and I needed to find them,” Zayas said. “It’s part of the business but you learn and come back and get better. I feel like I hurt him [in Round 3] and hit him with good shots but he’s a great champion.”
Ennis took back control of the fight in Round 5 with authority as he walked down Zayas and floored him on a beautiful combination of a right hand to the body and a left uppercut. Zayas was lucky to survive the rest of the round as Harvey Dock came close to jumping in following more clean punches from Ennis.
In Round 7, Ennis put the fight away as a flurry of clean punches forced Zayas to take a voluntary knee. Shortly after, the corner of Zayas saved their young fighter from any further damage.
“It was an amazing night,” Zayas said. “I showed tonight that if you dream big, sometimes you come up short but it’s part of the journey. I’m happy with my performance. But congratulations to ‘Boots.’ He did what he had to do to get the victory.
“[My cornermen] are here to save me. They are here to let me live another day tomorrow. I knew it was the right decision if they made it because it was time.”
After the fight, Zayas refused to confirm the rumor that he intends to move up to middleweight next after outgrowing the division.
“I don’t want to say that right now. I lost the fight fair and square,” Zayas said. “He won tonight. I’m not going to make any excuses about that I’m moving up in weight. I want to take some time off and not make any excuses. He won like the champion that he is and I lost like the gentleman that I am.”
Ennis, who missed out on a non-title, superfight against fellow unbeaten Vergil Ortiz Jr. earlier this year when tensions between Ortiz’s manager and promoter led to a lawsuit, remained steadfast that his goal is to unify all four recognized titles.
“Whoever [promoter] Eddie [Hearn of Matchroom Sport] wants, that’s who we are going to get [next,]” Ennis said. “Bring on Vergil and bring on the belts. I’m here to be undisputed in this weight class so it doesn’t matter who is next because I’ll fight them all.”
