By: Dr.Adal Munier, (AKA) Dr. Abbey Editor@ Large for World Liberty TV — Today, in the heart of Brooklyn, NY at Barclays Center, WBO and WBA Junior Middleweight World Champion Xander Zayas (23-0 13 KOs) and challenger, Philadelphia’s Jaron “Boots” Ennis (35-0 31 KOs), took to the stage to discuss their June 27 bout.
The blockbuster fight is streaming live and exclusively on DAZN PPV, brought to boxing fans around the globe by Matchroom in association with Top Rank. — While Ennis aims to cement his status as a two-weight unified champion, the 23-year-old Zayas most recently unified both titles earlier this year in Puerto Rico after an exhilarating contest that yielded a split decision with Abass Baraou.
The outcome notably solidified Zayas as the youngest unified ruler in the sport and the first Puerto Rican to unify at the weight. — Below is what the fighters and their teams had to say:
Eddie Hearn, Matchroom Chairman on how he’s feeling that the fight came together…
“I still can’t believe it. One of the hardest jobs in boxing is to get Jaron “Boots” Enis fights. The great news is, thanks to the DAZN partnership with Top Rank, we started talking and all of sudden we said ‘I think we can make Xander Zayas versus Jaron Boots Ennis.’ — I’m still in shock and I give the unbelievable credit that Xander deserves because he is a great fighter. He must have a massive set of cojones because what’s about to happen on June 27th is one of the toughest tasks in boxing.”
On not believing Xander would take the fight… “Dangerous, not just dangerous for him but dangerous for Boots because this kid is 23 and he’s one of the hottest young stars in the sport. I would be keeping him away from Jaron. If I represented Xander Zayas, there is no way I would let him take this fight.
I’d be saying ‘listen, we’ll go to MSG, we’ll fill that out and we’ll do another homecoming fight in Puerto Rico. We’ll have Bad Bunny singing you out. We’ll milk it. We’ll do this, we’ll move up to middleweight, we’ve got years. But this fight is what boxing needs.’”
Todd DuBoef, President, Top Rank: On having their first major event with DAZN on the Calendar……