When Xander Zayas defeated top contender Jorge Garcia last month in New York, he became not only the youngest world champion in men's boxing, but also a sizable player in one of the sport's most talent-ridden divisions.
The 154-pound weight class boasts, among others, Vergil Ortiz Jr., Jaron "Boots" Ennis and Sebastian Fundora — all of whom would give a strong test to the 22-year-old Puerto Rican. But it's the WBC interim champion, Ortiz, that piques Zayas' interest the most out of the star names at super welterweight.
"Vergil Ortiz [is who I most want to face out of the three]," WBO champion Zayas told Uncrowned and DAZN's "Ariel X Ade" show on Tuesday. "Sebastian Fundora [is No. 2], 'Boots' Ennis [is No. 3].
"Vergil Ortiz is going to be a huge fight here on the East Coast for Puerto Rico and Mexico. Him being from Texas [with Mexican descent], [I'm] from Puerto Rico [and fight] a lot in New York City. I feel like that, on the East Coast, will be a crazy fight."
"[Ortiz is] the fight that I've been calling for since [Ortiz was] looking for opponents and they called me to be one of the opponents," Zayas continued. "I said yes. But overall, I feel like Vergil Ortiz is a great fighter. He's shown it throughout his whole career. I've been nothing but respectful to him and his team. He seems like he wants to throw shots at me, [but] there's one fact and one fact only: I'm a champion, and he's not."
Tensions between Ortiz and Zayas reached a boiling point this past week on social media when Ortiz gave Zayas a backhanded compliment for winning his title, stating that Zayas was handed a "gift" with the opponent he was ordered to box for a vacant belt, compared to Ortiz, who fought Serhii Bohachuk and Israil Madrimov without a world title on the line.
The rivalry first began after a fight between Ortiz and Ennis fell apart for the Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev 2 undercard earlier this year because the boxers signed term sheets to fight each other at different weights. Zayas said he accepted an offer to replace Ennis in the Ortiz fight, but Madrimov was ultimately announced as Ortiz's foe for the show, infuriating Zayas.
With Ortiz and Zayas, boxing has a ready-made rivalry that pits not only two of the best young fighters in the sport, but also two of the biggest boxing nations — Mexico and Puerto Rico — in another installment of a historic rivalry.
"Same thing with 'Boots' here on the East Coast," Zayas said of Ennis, who's sold more than 30,000 tickets on the East Coast in each of his past three fights. "Him being a former world champion moving up a weight class [makes it another big fight]. I've got to see him at [super welterweight] first; [welterweight] is a whole different story. That's why I picked him at third. Second one — Sebastian Fundora, I picked him because I was the mandatory [for him] and I thought that fight was going to happen, and so I still want to showcase that I can beat him."
When Fundora held both the WBC and WBO super welterweight belts, Zayas was his mandatory. Fundora, however, chose to relinquish the belt earlier this year in pursuit of a Tim Tszyu rematch rather than face Zayas. Fundora ultimately battered and stopped Tszyu in the second meeting a week before Zayas became WBO champion, putting them on similar time schedules.
Zayas told ESPN in an interview that played as part of the broadcast for his world title fight that he agreed to all terms asked of him for a Fundora bout. Representatives of Fundora, according to Zayas, then added a rehydration clause, which Zayas refused to accept, and it led to Fundora vacating the belt.
"After the fight [against Perez], [Top Rank promoter] Bob Arum told me that I was going to fight my first title defense in Puerto Rico," Zayas said. "I'm looking forward to that because I've been wanting to fight on my island for a long time. My [last] fight [there] was my third or fourth fight as a professional. I can't wait to be back. I know that people want me to be back on the island. After [Arum] said that, a lot of people were hyped up back in Puerto Rico, so hopefully we can make that happen in December."
Zayas has not fought in his native Puerto Rico since he defeated Marklin Bailey in his fourth professional contest in 2020. For financial reasons, it's generally been rare for a major boxing event to take place on the island in recent years, rather than in a major city in the United States with a heavy Puerto Rican population. Subriel Matias' IBF homecoming title defense against Liam Paro in June 2024 was an exception, but with Zayas' stardom still building and not yet at the level of Amanda Serrano or Edgar Berlanga, it is feasible that we could see him headline in his native home before the year's out.
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