Junior middleweight contender Xander Zayas (20-0, 12 KOs) defeated Damian Sosa (25-3, 12 KOs) by a one-sided ten-round unanimous choice in a showcase combat on Friday evening within the co-feature at The Theater at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York.
The scores had been 100-90, 100-90, and 100-90.
Zayas, 22, had his manner in opposition to Sosa, hitting him with left hooks to the physique, jabs, and straight rights that had him hesistant to throw. Sosa got here into the combat identified for having a excessive punch output, however he was afraid to open up in opposition to Zayas as a result of he was typically being countered.
Sosa was aggressive in rounds one and two, touchdown some good photographs and making Zayas cautious about throwing. Nonetheless, beginning within the third, Sosa stopped combating aggressively and was giving Zayas an excessive amount of respect. If Sosa had stored combating laborious, Zayas would have had issues as a result of he didn’t look comfy with the punches he was getting hit with.
Sosa, 27, ramped up his offense within the ninth and tenth, touchdown hooks to the pinnacle of Zayas. Nonetheless, he lacked the ability to fret Zayas and was nailed repeatedly with counter photographs.
Prime Rank did an excellent job of selecting Sosa for Zayas, who doesn’t have the best chin and may need issues down the highway if he doesn’t enhance on his protection. Tonight, Zayas was wonderful at blocking photographs and getting out of the way in which of Sosa’s punches.
For Zayas to compete with the ability punchers at 154, like Vergil Ortiz Jr, Israil Madrimov, Tim Tszyu, and Serhii Bohachuk, he’s going to want to have his protection on level.
It seems to be like Prime Rank is matching Zayas in an identical method as Edgar Berlanga after they had him. They’re not taking probabilities by placing Zayas in with fighters that would give him issues, and it seems to be like the main target is on constructing a glittering report.
In the long term, that’s not going to assist Zayas as a result of he’s going to be in shock when he will get in with a proficient fighter with energy, like Tszyu, Madrimov, Bohachuk, or Ortiz Jr.
In the end, Prime Rank might want to throw Zayas to the wolves to see how he’ll do. He gained’t be remodeled right into a faux star within the U.S. by combating lesser fighters. If Zayas goes to be the subsequent Miguel Cotto or Felix Trinidad moderately than the subsequent Edgar Berlanga, Prime Rank wants to begin matching him in opposition to thought opposition.
