Xander Zayas vs Jorge Garcia Fight Reaches Agreement For WBO 154 lb Title

Originally posted on Fights Around The World
By Abraham Gonzalez | Last updated May 14, 2025 8:35 PM ET

The recently stripped WBO junior middleweight title will be on the line when Puerto Rican sensation Xander Zayas (21-0, 13 KOs) faces Jorge Garcia (33-4, 26 KOs), according to WBO President Gustavo Olivieri, Esq.

In an X post on Tuesday afternoon, Olivieri wrote “Re: Vacant WBO 154 lbs—title Xander Zayas vs. Jorge Garcia. The WBO confirms that Top Rank, Golden Boy, and Zanfer Promotions have reached an agreement for the subject matter bout. Official fight date & venue to be announced. #NewEra @WorldBoxingOrg @trboxing @GoldenBoyBoxing.”

Re: Vacant WBO 154 lbs. Title Xander Zayas vs. Jorge Garcia

The WBO confirms that Top Rank, Golden Boy, and Zanfer Promotions have reached an agreement for the subject matter bout. Official fight date & venue to be announced. #NewEra @WorldBoxingOrg @trboxing @GoldenBoyBoxing

— Gustavo Olivieri, Esq. (@OlivieriLaw) May 13, 2025

Initially, the now former champion Sebastian Fundora was supposed to enter a purse bid to face Zayas within 120 days. When Fundora’s team made their intent public via social media while announcing a rematch with Tim Tszyu, the WBO decided that this meant they were not going to participate in the purse bid, even though the WBO had not received formal correspondence from team Fundora stating their intent. The WBO stripped Fundora of the title days later, making Zayas vs. Garcia the fight to determine their new champion.

Before the fight between Zayas and Garcia could enter a purse bid, Top Rank, Golden Boy, and Zanfer came to an agreement before any purse bid could be ordered, according to Olivieri. With regard to the fight date and location, that information has yet to be released. There has been heavy speculation that the fight would land on July 26 in NYC, which would also serve as the last event distributed by ESPN. That date and location makes sense, but we’ll see what is announced in the coming weeks.

The 22-year-old Zayas has been campaigning for a title fight for quite some time, and although he was looking forward to the Fundora fight, he will have to settle for facing Garcia for now. For those who don’t know or remember, Garcia is the fighter who pulled off the split decision upset over then top contender Charles Conwell in April. That big win put him in the #2 spot, leading to this title opportunity. This is an intriguing matchup as it is not a foregone conclusion that Zayas beats Garcia, making this fight a sneaky good one.