I’ll always remember speaking to boxing promoter Bob Arum within weeks of Top Rank signing a 16-year-old talent, and asking him how he relates to younger fighters as he gets older, at the time deep into his 80s.
Arum recruited Xander Zayas to his roster when the teenager was still in high school, but was blown away by the fighter’s talents, size for his age and potential to go all the way.
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But, as he told me in 2020 through a voice that broke with emotion, “it fills me with regret because I’m a realist about longevity.”
Arum “fell in love” with Zayas and the Puerto Rican’s family, he said, despite a 71-year age gap between him and the fighter. He didn’t just see a kid. He saw a future superstar — someone who, he thought, could win world championships at super welterweight and all the way up to light heavyweight.
He just didn’t know if he’d live to see it.
“I realize at some time in the future the clock will run out and I don’t know if that happens before or after the kid becomes a champion,” he told me. “I would hate to be gone when that happens, but … as I sign younger kids and I get older, the idea that I’ll be there jumping in the ring when he wins a world title becomes less realistic.”
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It wasn’t long before Zayas heard this, and he made a promise to Arum. He’d win a world title sooner, to ensure Bob would see the day.
Zayas fulfilled that pledge last year when he out-pointed Jorge Garcia to lift the WBO super welterweight championship. Arum had not only lived to see it, he was ringside — just as he had been for Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and Manny Pacquiao — but now 93.
Zayas grew from wonderboy to the man Top Rank always knew he’d become in the past nine months alone, and it all came to a head this weekend in San Juan when he showcased extraordinary technique, footwork and shot selection to unify his WBO belt with Abass Baraou’s WBA championship on Saturday.
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Zayas overcame Baraou’s mid-fight pressure, unleashed harder combinations late to rally his diehard crowd, and stood toe-to-toe in the center of the ring in the 12th round, risking it all to fight in a fan-friendly way.
He still has further to go but, for too long Zayas wasn’t treated as seriously as the perceived bigger hitters in the division — Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Jaron “Boots” Ennis.
That disrespect was felt within the walls at Top Rank HQ in Las Vegas when I first told them around 2024 that those representing Callum Walsh were targeting Zayas as a possibly easier route to a world championship.
They couldn’t believe what they heard. They loved the fight back then, particularly as it could sell out at Madison Square Garden because of the Puerto Rican and Irish communities in New York City.
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I didn’t share Top Rank’s confidence. I didn’t think, at that time, it was the layup they foresaw.
I was wrong.
If it were to happen right now, there is only one result, considering Walsh’s sluggish displays of late and Zayas’ growth as, arguably, the most improved world champion in boxing.
For Arum, who has a checkered history with one of Walsh’s promoters, Dana White, the matchup would derail the face of Zuffa Boxing, because Zayas would knock out Walsh if they fought in 2026.
Heck, put Zayas in the ring with Ortiz, whom he called out this weekend, or “Boots,” and it’s no foregone conclusion even those guys would win, like it may have been had either fight been held 18 months ago.
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That’s how good Zayas has become, how confident he carries himself, and how fluid and natural he now fights in the ring.
Considering the cinematic moment DAZN captured in November when Ennis entered a boxing ring after Ortiz had just beaten Erickson Lubin in lightning-quick fashion, it’s baffling that the superfight has not been booked.
Financial disputes, promotional conflicts and contractual issues aside, Zayas uncomplicated the Ortiz-Ennis picture on Saturday by beating Baraou in style in Puerto Rico.
In doing so, Zayas showed super welterweight is not a two-man division. The weight class has breadth at its highest echelon, and he’s aware of that.
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“I’m only 23 and I’m the youngest active unified champion,” he said. “And I’m just getting started.”
He later called on Golden Boy’s Oscar de la Hoya to come together with Top Rank to book a fight against Ortiz. He welcomed a fight against Ennis, too.
Arum once openly feared his clock would expire before he’d see young Xander succeed, but Zayas did something better — he won, evolved and arrived early in the division.
Now the other super welterweights need to either play catch-up by actually forcing fights that fans want to see, or get left behind.
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