Fresh off of his first world title win, Xander Zayas spoke to boxing media about capturing the belt, his thoughts on his fight with Jorge Garcia, and where he could potentially go from here now that he’s a world titleholder. Here’s some excerpts of what Zayas had to say below.
Zayas on what message he sent to the other top 154 pound fighters with his win
“They gonna have to adjust because I can make adjustments work round by round, quick as possible.”
On if he thought he had an opening to stop Garcia in the seventh round of the fight
“I feel like obviously he was a tough opponent and he wasn’t going to quit and I didn’t want to throw everything in the seventh round knowing I had six or five more rounds to go. So I wanted to be smart, staying patient, winning round by round.
“Round 9 came in, he started putting his head down a little bit more, walking forward, we started grabbing him. Just don’t let him work inside. If we allowed him to work inside it would’ve been a whole completely different fight and we just frustrated him, he was frustrated by the end.”
On Fundora wanting to fight him to get the WBO belt back
“He shouldn’t have lost in the first place, he shouldn’t have left it vacant in the first place. That’s all I have to say. He know where to contact us.”
On who he wants to fight next
“Whoever. I heard Bakhram is looking for an opponent, Sebastian Fundora I heard wants his belt back, so anybody. Anybody in the division can get it now. It’s like I told you, there’s no running now. I’m a world champion and I have what they want.”
