23-year-old local hero prevails by split decision and becomes unified WBA and WBO super welterweight world champion in Puerto Rico.
Xander Zayas defeated Abass Baraou via split decision to be crowned unified WBA and WBO half-middleweight world champion last night at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in his hometown of San Juan. The 23-year-old is thus the youngest active unified champion in professional boxing and the first fighter to achieve this feat in Puerto Rico. Zayas (23-0, 13 knockouts) relied on footwork right from the start, controlling the distance with his jab and scoring with short combinations. The tactical gameplan forced Baraou (17-2, 9 knockouts) to repeatedly overdo his attacks, which Zayas answered with quick counters and consistently secured the center of the ring.
Baraou had his best phase in the fifth round. Several right hands found their target and briefly created momentum, but Zayas remained calm, kept his guard up and continued to box with discipline. In round nine, Zayas landed his hardest punch of the evening – a perfectly timed right hand that visibly wobbled Baraou. Zayas smelled a rat and went for the knockout, but Baraou bit his way through and forced him into an open exchange of punches. Zayas quickly found his way back to his line, returned to movement and timing and did not deviate from his game plan until the final round. In the final, he thrilled the home crowd with almost three minutes of intense man-to-man boxing in an exchange of blows.
One judge scored the fight 116-112 for Baraou, but two identical scores of 116-112 in favor of Zayas tipped the scales – and made Xander Zayas the new unified world champion in the semi-middleweight division.