Xander Zayas opens up on school bullies, signing with Top Rank at 16, world title glory and plans to dismantle Abass Baraou
Puerto Rican star Xander Zayas will put his WBO junior middleweight world title on the line against WBA champion Abass Baraou on Saturday, January 31, at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, in a rare unification bout that will mark only the second time in history that two world titles are unified on Puerto Rican soil.
The 23-year-old, who used to be boxing's youngest male world champion, bypassed an easier voluntary defence to face another reigning champion in a fight scheduled to take place roughly an hour before the Teofimo Lopez–Shakur Stevenson main event at Madison Square Garden.
The choice reflects more than ambition inside the rankings. It traces back to how Zayas entered boxing in the first place. 'It definitely took me some time to enjoy boxing as a sport because it's incredibly hard, especially on your body,' he said.
'But I was already being hit at school and in my neighbourhood. So, when I started I didn't start for fun, I started because I had to learn to defend myself against those bullies.'
What began as self-preservation gradually became something deeper. 'I fell in love with the discipline. I fell in love with the hard work and the dedication you have to put in. It taught me a lot.'
He never returned to confront the people who once bullied him. 'I never actually went back to those bullies,' Zayas said. 'I didn't think I needed to show them anything. I felt like they kind of noticed the confidence growing and me not being afraid anymore.'
Puerto Rican star Xander Zayas will put his WBO junior middleweight world title on the line against WBA champion Abass Baraou on Saturday, January 31
That internal shift, he says, mattered more than any external validation, and it still shapes how he approaches his career now that he stands at the center of one of the biggest fights ever staged in Puerto Rico.
When Zayas signed with Top Rank at 16 and received public support from island legends Miguel Cotto and Felix Trinidad, he felt the weight of expectation, but not in the form most fighters describe.
'I wouldn't say pressure. It's a responsibility,' he said. 'I know what I have to do. I know what I want to do. I know what I want to accomplish.'
Hearing praise from champions he grew up watching carries emotional significance, he admitted, 'but obviously, at the end of the day, it doesn't mean anything if I don't prove it every time I'm in the ring.'
For Zayas, reputation is not inherited. It is earned repeatedly. 'I have to stay locked in, I have to stay hungry, I have to stay dedicated to this. To keep showing up, to keep showing that I keep getting better, to keep showing that I keep improving, to keep showing that I am who I say I am,' he said. 'Because it doesn't matter who says that, outside of me showing it.'
That thinking explains why, after winning the WBO title by unanimous decision in July, he rejected the safer option of a soft voluntary defense. Instead, he pushed for immediate unification against Baraou.
'I feel like some people are afraid to lose their 0, or some people are just interested in the business side of things and think they'll get that elsewhere,' Zayas said. 'I feel like it's more about the legacy for me, then everything else will come.'
He speaks about legacy in unusually concrete terms for a fighter so early into his championship reign. 'Legacy will stay with me forever, even when I decide to retire or when I passed away,' he said.
'I will be remembered as a champion that in his first title defense, went to get two titles in a matter of a six months span.' Then he stated his goal plainly: 'I'm going to collect two titles. I'm going to be the first Puerto Rican to ever unify titles in Puerto Rican soil.'
The distinction matters to him not only as a professional milestone but as a cultural one. 'The fact I'll be the first Puerto Rican to become unified champion in Puerto Rican soil means the world,' he said.
'I just keep writing history and that will always follow me, that will always be with me, no matter how much money, no matter what I do outside of the ring. I will always be a world champion. I will always be remembered as a world champion.'
Zayas understands the financial realities of the sport. 'Obviously everybody wants to make the best out of it as they can,' he said, noting the physical toll of boxing and the short window most fighters have at the top.
'There's only so much punishment your body can handle from taking blows that maybe in other sports you can adapt a bit longer.' He does not dismiss the business side, but insists it came later for him.
'When I was growing up, I didn't know that the professionals got paid,' Zayas said. 'All I knew was professional fighters fight without head gear and get belts. So that was always the mindset. Just collect those belts, collect that legacy.' Only afterward did money enter the equation.
'Then after obviously, I started to understand the business side a little bit more… but that hungriness first started from just wanting to collect belts, wanting to collect history.'
The fighters who inspired that mindset form a familiar roll call of greats. 'Miguel Cotto was a top guy, very respectful guy inside and outside the ring,' Zayas said. 'A gentleman… and that's something that I aspire to be.'
What he admires most is how Cotto left the sport. 'He didn't feel the need to come back after his retirement,' Zayas said. 'I want to be a fighter that doesn't need to do anything else when the time comes and proves himself every time.'
From there his list expands: Manny Pacquiao, Felix Trinidad, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr., Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.
'Guys that have been there before, they've completed everything in boxing,' he said. 'So when you look at them, it's like, wow. That's what you aspire to be.'
Standing in the opposite corner in San Juan will be Baraou, a fighter Zayas knows better than most future opponents. 'We shared a couple of rounds - I'll say probably 80 plus rounds, maybe less, maybe a bit more,' he said of their sparring history.
'Maybe two or three camps in total.' He cautions against reading too much into gym work, acknowledging that preparation changes once a real fight approaches, but familiarity still matters.
'When the body gets tired, when the mind gets fatigued, you're going to go back to those old habits,' Zayas said. 'And those old habits are always going to be there, and I'm going to make him pay for all those habits every single time.'
Baraou is known as a pressure fighter, and Zayas believes his movement will be decisive. 'My movement is always key,' he said. 'Nobody can keep up with my rhythm. Every time I get in a rhythm, it's hard for me to get off of it, and it's hard for them to keep up with it.' His plan is simple in theory: 'Continue to do what I've been doing. Have fun, be relaxed in there. Just put on a show.'
Still, he is wary of complacency, especially after watching Baraou score a late knockout in his last fight. 'In boxing, every fighter is dangerous until the last bell sounds or the referee stops you,' Zayas said.
'Any punch can change the fight. Any punch can literally overturn the whole outcome of the fight.' His answer is constant awareness. 'I have to be very, very mindful. I have to be active. I have to be smart. I have to be able to see everything.'
Then he smiled and reached for a metaphor. 'It's like The Matrix. I gotta slow motion everything, and then just have fun in there.' Ultimately, he said, it comes down to concentration. 'It comes down to how focused I can be, and I know I can maintain focus for 36 minutes.'
All of it will unfold in a building layered with symbolism. The Coliseo de Puerto Rico first hosted boxing with Miguel Cotto's knockout of Kelson Pinto in 2004 and later staged world title fights for Ivan Calderon, Juan Manuel 'Juanma' Lopez and Roman Martínez. Only once before, in 2010, have two champions unified titles on the island.
Now the task belongs to a fighter who began boxing simply to stop being afraid, who learned discipline before he learned celebrity, and who measures success less by protection of an undefeated record than by what remains after the gloves are finally hung up.
On January 31, against an opponent who knows him well and a crowd that will expect history, Xander Zayas will test whether that philosophy can become permanent record.
