#3 WBC ranked junior middleweight champion Xander Zayas (20-0, 12 KO) dominated Damian Sosa (25-3, 12 KOs), beating him by a wide ten-round unanimous decision last Friday night at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. The scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 100-90.
Zayas Showed No Power
The 22-year-old Puerto Rican fighter Zayas’s performance showed that he lacks the punching power at 154 for him to knock out his opponents. He didn’t get the knockout against a fighter in Sosa, who resembled a punching bag. Zayas didn’t perform like a future world champion and definitely not a future star unless it’s the pseudo variety.
Sosa put pressure on Zayas early, landing shots that had him on the defensive, trying to stay out of harm’s way. Sosa’s offense slowed down after the third, enabling Zayas to take command of the contest using his left hooks and jabs. For all intents and purposes, the fight was over after round three.
Zayas hit the tough Mexican warrior Sosa with everything but the kitchen sink but couldn’t score a knockout. He didn’t have much to worry about with Sosa regarding offense because he wasn’t landing anything significant.
“He pushed me and elevated me to the next level. Now, I feel like I’m ready. Before, I felt like I was ready. But now I think I let everybody know that I’m ready for the elite names,” said Zayas after the fight.
Zayas says he’s ready for the elite-level fighters now, but it doesn’t look that way. He’s already been hurt in other fighters against weak opposition, and he lacks the chin and power required to compete at the next level.
Top Rank Creating a Fake Star?
It’s unclear what Top Rank’s endgame is for Zayas. If they want to build a fake star in the Edgar Berlanga mold to take advantage of the Puerto Rican fans in New York and in that country, they can do that as long as they continue matching him carefully against Sosa-like fighters.
Top Rank might be angling Zayas for a cash-out type of fight against popular fighters like Terence Crawford, which he would obviously lose but would bring in a lot of money. To keep Zayas winning, he’ll need to be maneuvered around the dangerous fighters and matched carefully. If Top Rank puts Zayas in with any of these fighters, he’ll likely get knocked out:
– Vergil Ortiz Jr
– Sebastian Fundora
– Charles Conwell
– Erickson Lubin
– Terence Crawford
– Tim Tszyu
– Serhii Bohachuk
– Israil Madrimov
