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Xander Zayas’ Next Fight Slated For The First Quarter of 2025

Originally posted on Fights Around The World
By Abraham Gonzalez | Last updated Nov 7, 2024 8:46 PM ET

Although we are quickly approaching the Heisman Award Ceremony in December, which is traditionally a night Top Rank host a show with some of their premier talent, one fighter that will not be on that card is undefeated junior middleweight Xander Zayas (20-0, 12 KOs). Multiple sources have confirmed to FightsATW that the 22-year-old Puerto Rican fighter will likely return during the first quarter of 2025.

When Zayas spoke to FightsATW prior to his September 27^th win over Damian Sosa in NYC, Zayas had expressed his desire to return to the ring in December, barring any injuries or cuts. Zayas walked away relatively clean from the Sosa fight, and the hope from those who follow his career was that he would return to the ring on the Heisman Night Top Rank card against Josh Kelly (16-1-1, 8 KOs), who is ranked #2 with the WBO behind Zayas and did not look too impressive in his win over Ishmael Davis in September.

According to David Greisman’s story for BoxingScene.com, 32-year-old Slawa Spomer (19-0, 10 KOs) from Germany is considered the next opponent for Zayas as he is ranked 12^th with the WBO. This could be a way for Top Rank to keep Zayas busy until things clear up between Terence Crawford, Sebastian Fundora, and Errol Spence Jr.

Crawford recently granted permission for Fundora to make a volunteer defense of his WBO title, which looks like a fight against Spence. The only issue is that the WBO requires that Fundora faces someone ranked in the top 13, which Spence isn’t currently. If Fundora takes the Spence fight anyway, he could be stripped of the WBO title, making Crawford the full champion, which is why Top Rank isn’t pushing Zayas too hard right now.

If Zayas doesn’t fight Spomer next, is a fight against Kelly one that would be appealing to the boxing world? That looks to be the next best fight for Zayas, but if Top Rank feels he needs one more fight before facing Kelly, then we will likely see Zayas face Spomer in early 2025.

This article first appeared on Fights Around The World and was syndicated with permission.

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