Jaron Ennis Stops Xander Zayas in Seven

Jaron “Boots” Ennis walked into Barclays Centre with questions following him up from welterweight. He walked out with two super-welterweight belts, a perfect record still intact, and the look of a man who has no intention of wasting time in his new division.

Ennis stopped Xander Zayas at 1min 49sec of the seventh round to take the WBA and WBO titles, dropping the brave Puerto Rican three times before the corner decided, quite sensibly, that admiration was no substitute for preservation. Zayas, unbeaten in 23 fights and already a young champion of some standing, gave what he had. Unfortunately for him, what he had was not enough to keep Ennis off him for long.

The opening round set the tone. Ennis, sharp, loose and spiteful with both hands, hurt Zayas with a left and put him down before the fight had properly settled. It was not a flash knockdown in the comforting sense. It was the sort that tells a fighter, very early, that the man opposite him carries danger in punches that do not appear to be fully loaded.

Zayas showed commendable nerve. Plenty of fighters would have retreated into survival after such a start, but he stayed in range, tried to punch with Ennis and had his best spell in the third. A clean counter shook Ennis and, for a few moments, the fight became something more than a coronation. The Puerto Rican support in Brooklyn found its voice, and Ennis, for the first time, had to answer a proper question.

He answered it as good fighters do: not by panicking, not by posing, but by getting back to work. Ennis tightened his attacks, varied the height of his punches and began to make Zayas pay for every attempt to stand his ground. Zayas had moments in the fourth, but he was being forced to fight at a pace and temperature that suited the challenger far more than the champion.

The decisive turn came in the fifth when Ennis dropped Zayas again, this time with the kind of shot that drains the ambition from a man’s legs even when his pride remains intact. Zayas rose, as he had done before, but from then on the contest had a grim inevitability about it. He was still willing, still dangerous in flashes, but Ennis was now dictating not just the exchanges but the terms of engagement.

By the seventh, Ennis was hunting with accuracy rather than recklessness. He drove Zayas back, mixed the body attack with hooks upstairs, and produced the third knockdown that ended any reasonable argument. The referee administered the count, but Zayas’s corner had seen enough. There is no dishonour in that. Their man had been brave, and bravery is a fine thing until it becomes bad management.

Ennis improved to 36-0 with 32 knockouts and, more importantly, announced himself as a genuine force at 154lb. He had already been an outstanding welterweight, but this was the sort of performance that travels across divisions. He was hurt, he adjusted, and then he broke down a young champion who had arrived with belief, talent and the backing of a loud Brooklyn crowd.

For Zayas, now 23-1, the defeat will sting, but it need not define him. At 23, he has time, skill and enough character to return. What this fight showed is that he is not yet at Ennis's level, who looked bigger, stronger, sharper and, when the fight caught fire, more ruthless.

The super-welterweight division has been put on notice. Ennis wants the lot, and on this evidence, he is not merely talking for the sake of filling a microphone. He brought speed, spite and composure, which is a rather unpleasant combination for anyone holding a belt nearby.