Xander Zayas (22-0, 13 KOs) won the vacant WBO junior middleweight title on Saturday night, beating a wild, tired-looking Jorge Garcia (33-5, 26 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City. The scores were 116-112, 118-110, and 119-109.
Garcia’s Performance Falls Short
Zayas, 22, felt he had to box to get the win. However, went a little overboard with the holding and moving. The tactics failed to energize the crowd, as they were quiet throughout. Each time ESPN’s cameras would pan to the audience during the action, you could see the fans not saying a word and with an uneasy look on their faces. They wanted Zayas to look great, and he failed.
Garcia looked underequipped to deal with all the holding and moving that Xander was doing. He wasn’t strong enough to peel Zayas off of him when he was holding. His footspeed wasn’t good enough to cut off the ring when Xander was running. Garcia looked out of place tonight. It was clear that the WBO made a big mistake giving him a #2 ranking with their organization at 154 following his win over Charles Cowell last April.
“Boxing 101. I had to box my way to victory. I knew that if I stood in front of him that I’d be fighting his fight. So, I did everything behind the jab. The jab was the key to victory, and we showed that today,” said Zayas.
“This is a dream come true. This is beautiful. To see my Puerto Rican fans here, this is amazing. I could never dream of anything better than this.”
Zayas Calls Out Fundora
After the fight, Zayas called out WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora for a unification fight. The promoters for Zayas have to know from watching his performance tonight that he’s not ready for a fight against Fundora. If they make that fight, Fundora will embarrass Xander.
