Zayas vs Ennis Predictions: ‘Boots’ targets second divisional coronation against Zayas

Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis takes on WBA and WBO super welterweight champion Xander Zayas as he looks to solidify himself as a candidate for the pound-for-pound list. The blockbuster 154lbs clash takes place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Saturday, June 27. This elite fistic meeting will be broadcast live on DAZN PPV and Ultimate.

Read on for my Zayas vs Ennis predictions ahead of this top-shelf fight.

Zayas vs Ennis Odds

Zayas is marketed at 4/1 as he takes up the unfamiliar position of underdog. It is ‘Boots’ who enters as the favourite, with the 28-year-old marketed at 1/5. The draw is priced at 16/1.

Zayas vs Ennis Fight Preview

Boxing needs fights like this. An undefeated former welterweight champion meeting the reigning super welterweight ruler. Two fighters in their 20s picking the path of most resistance. Boxing needs the fighters in their physical prime to stand up and be counted, now more than ever.

This generation of boxing greats are slowing down; Usyk, Lomachenko, Fury, Joshua and Canelo have all either flirted with, hinted at or reneged upon retirement. The generation before is still being mis-sold as a going concern, see Pacquiao’s misguided and messy reunion with Mayweather. Then there’s the influencers, the UFC fighters, the Mike Tysons, the Tommy Furys. 

Boxing needs its peak boxers to take risks. You could argue this fight is perhaps only the second real risk ‘Boots’ Ennis has taken as a pro. A shutout win over Karen Chukhadzhian was a bloodless coup to lift the interim IBF belt. The fact the sanctioning body made him out-point the Ukrainian again in a rematch by appointing Chukhadzhian their mandatory challenger was mind-boggling. A needless 24 rounds where the one-sided 12 would have done.

Knockout wins over David Avanesyan and Roiman Villa were impressive but expected. Where ‘Boots’ finally started to stir up some true, world class excitement was in his unification fight with WBA boss Eimantas Stanionis. The undefeated Lithuanian was an underdog, but perhaps the first truly live one that Ennis had engaged with.

But ‘Boots’ absolutely decimated the 16-0 WBA titlist, lifting the vacant The Ring title along the way. Ennis had been boxing within himself since arriving at championship class. But this was the destroyer of old. The fast-rising prospect who had gutted Thomas Dulorme in a round. The iron-fisted problem who had become the first man to stop former world champion Sergey Lipinets and teak-tough Dominican Juan Carlos Abreu.

Ennis moved up to the super welterweight division after the Stanionis destruction. Southpaw road warrior Uisima Lima was eviscerated in a round on Jaron’s divisional debut. That win gave ‘Boots’ the WBA interim strap with which he has manoeuvred himself into the path of Zayas.

It is not a path that many boxers have been queuing up to walk. Sebastian Fundora vacated his WBO strap rather than defend it against the 23-year-old. Zayas’ impressive recent resume leaves few 154-pounders willing to hammer on his door.

A coming-of-age unification win over WBA champion Abass Baraou last time out saw WBO boss Zayas leave with two belts and a greatly-enhanced reputation. Against an opponent who used intelligent pressure for 12 energy-sapping rounds, Zayas boxed neatly on the back foot and did enough to warrant a split decision victory.

Zayas had bagged the vacant WBO strap with a gritty points nod over 6-foot Mexican hard-case Jorge Garcia Perez, who had stunned Olympic hero Charles Conwell in his previous outing. Zayas has reached the top by fighting the people nobody else wants to fight.

Ennis and Zayas have won enough of boxing’s thankless tasks to reach the A-list. Thus, their first truly elite test arrives against each other. Like Roy Jones Jr’s unanimous nod over a nascent Bernard Hopkins in 1993, it is a thrillingly-early look at two fighters who could dominate the sport in the coming years.

Zayas vs Ennis Full Card

Xander Zayas vs Jaron Ennis

Jahi Tucker vs Euri Cedeno

Emiliano Vargas vs Bryce Mills

Ben Whittaker vs Richard Rivera

Quincey Williams vs Jerome Baxter

Dennis Thompson vs Edwin Rodriguez

Juanma Lopez De Jesus vs Alberto Motos

Zayas vs Ennis Prediction

Ennis has few gaps in his game. The 28-year-old can punch, having stopped 31 of his 35 victims. ‘Boots’ is clever. Peep the transition to southpaw that caused Lima’s destruction or the way the shifting stances befuddled the doomed Stanionis. 

Then there is the small matter of how fast this guy is. Ennis can usually be found walking his foes down, his handspeed only exacerbating the suffering of his opposite number. 

But when punches have come his way, the precocious super welterweight does have a tendency to stand and bang. David Avanesyan landed more leather than was strictly necessary before ‘Boots’ retired him in five.

This is where Zayas must do his work. In the pockets. Up close, where a trigger-happy challenger can be triggered into exchanging. The Puerto Rican is more of a counter-puncher than Ennis, which could stand him in good stead should Jaron try to wage war.

Zayas has recent experience closing down a come-forward warrior. The way he played Garcia at his own game to bag the WBO belt showed ring IQ as well as grit. Baraou chased him for 12 rounds on the night Xander won the WBA strap, with Zayas settling into a rhythm and eventually picking him off. 

But Zayas takes punches a little too readily. Great news for the viewer against an opponent who does the same. But I think Ennis wins these exchanges when they occur and, with them, the fight and the titles. 

Ennis to win in rounds 10-12 is priced at a boosted 9/2 and I like that bet. I think Zayas will fight his heart out but find himself finished by the first boxer he has met who is better in the pocket than he is.

You can find our latest Boxing Odds here