The 2 fighters are accustomed to one another, having shared roughly 80 rounds of sparring earlier of their careers, which helps clarify why the battle was made. That familiarity doesn’t cut back the problem. Sparring is managed, with coaches stepping in and the tempo coming down as soon as sufficient has been seen, situations that don’t exist in a unification battle.
These rounds additionally got here years in the past. Baraou had not but settled totally into the strain type he now depends on, and Zayas had not been requested to handle twelve rounds towards an opponent who refuses to offer floor. What works in a health club setting doesn’t at all times maintain as soon as the rounds maintain transferring with out interruption.
Baraou fights on his phrases, strolling ahead whereas throwing, persevering with to work when photographs land clear, and staying in vary moderately than resetting after single punches or mixtures. He accepts contact if it permits him to stay shut and maintain working, an strategy that forces opponents to reply each spherical.
Zayas wins fights by way of timing, positioning, and management moderately than energy. Towards somebody ready to maintain stepping in, that management must be maintained constantly, as any lapse offers floor again and invitations strain.
The battle takes place on the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, the place Zayas can have the gang behind him and the familiarity of house. Crowd vitality doesn’t make a strain fighter give floor as soon as he commits to staying inside. If preventing at house performs a task, it’s extra prone to seem later, when rounds are tight and judges are separating clear scoring from fixed ahead motion.
Zayas has been guided fastidiously since early in his skilled profession, and that path has been watched carefully. If this battle goes the gap and leaves room for disagreement, it is going to be folded into the best way his profession has been tracked and evaluated to date.
This bout places Zayas in entrance of a seasoned champion ready to take dangers from the opening bell, leaving little room to ease into the battle. How he handles sustained strain right here will form how this stage of his profession is seen as soon as the scores are learn.
