Zayas Vs. Perez: WBO Gold On The Line, July 26th

Xander Zayas says he plans on defeating Jorge Garcia Perez to capture the vacant WBO junior middleweight title this Saturday, then look to make an immediate unification fight next against WBC 154-lb champion Sebastian Fundora. The way Zayas (21-0, 13 KOs) talks, it’s just a formality that he’ll defeat #2 Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) to capture the vacant WBO title.

Zayas vs. Perez Preview

Zayas-Perez will headline on July 26th at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City. The event will be shown live on ESPN and ESPN+ at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT for the main card. Prelims begin at 5:10 ET.

“I’m happy at 22. I’m fighting for a world title. It’s another fight, and I got to take care of business,” said Xander Zayas to Sean Zittel about his fight against Jorge Garcia Perez on Saturday. “It’s exciting to hear people say they want me to be the next guy for Puerto Rico, and that’s something I want to do.”

It would have looked better if Zayas had beaten some quality fighters to earn his #1 ranking, because it just looks like he was maneuvered into his top spot by cunning rather than by putting him in against A-level fighters to earn his position. Judge for yourself. These are Xander’s last three opponents:

– Slawa Spomer– Damian Sosa– Patrick Teixeira

It’s not by accident that Top Rank matched Zayas against those fighters rather than Vergil Ortiz Jr, Israil Madrimov, Serhii Bohachuk, or Yoenis Tellez.

“I want to bring glory to my island, but I want to bring glory to Xander Zayas. I don’t want to bring glory as the next Tito or as the next Cotto. I just want to be myself,” said Zayas.

There’s no way that Xander can become the next Miguel Cotto, Felix Trinidad, or Wilfredo Benitez for Puerto Rico, because he lacks punching power and he has a lot of rabbit in him. Zayas fights more like a cross between Devin Haney and Shakur Stevenson. That’s not a compliment either.

The reason Zayas’ popularity hasn’t increased is that his style isn’t entertaining. He’s a bigger version of Haney. Top Rank has been pushing Zayas onto the fans, hoping to turn him into a star, but it’s been a failure. He lacks that ‘it factor’ that fans are looking for.

Zayas Unification Dreams

“When I become world champion, we can still make the fight happen in the future,” said Zayas about Sebastian Fundora. “I don’t think it’s duck. He made a business decision.”

It was an obvious choice for Fundora to make. Go in the direction of a nice payday in a rematch with Tszyu in a fight that fans wanted to see, rather than fighting a lesser-known, defensive fighter for small money in Zayas. If the Puerto Rican-born, U.S.-based Xander were popular, it would have made sense for Fundora to fight him. He brings nothing to the table.