Jaron “Boots” Ennis wins the WBA and WBO super-welterweight titles at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, beating previously unbeaten Xander Zayas by stoppage in the seventh round. Multiple reports say the fight answers questions that had followed Ennis, including how he would perform against a top-level opponent, how he would react when hurt, and how he would handle a hostile crowd.
According to accounts of the bout, the most challenging stretch comes earlier, when Zayas lands a flush right hand through Ennis’s guard in the third round. The punch wobbles Ennis and forces him to retreat and clinch, creating a tense moment in a fight that later turns decisively in Ennis’s favor. After the stoppage, Ennis describes the experience as empowering, saying he “loved” fighting in front of the crowd directed against him and that the toughest test only strengthens his ambition.
Overall, sources agree on the venue, the titles at stake, Zayas’s unbeaten record before the fight, and Ennis’s seventh-round finish, while emphasizing Ennis’s post-fight confidence and interpretation of the hostile atmosphere.
