Ward pointed to the third round, when Zayas briefly hurt Ennis with a right hand after catching him during an exchange. While many have focused on that moment alone, Ward said the larger concern isn’t the punch itself but the pattern behind it.
“Because Boots has not been able to get elite competition in the ring with him… everybody he’s fought in the last 10 years, he went in there knowing, ‘I’m way better than you.’ Over that time period, you start to develop bad habits,” Ward said.
Ward stressed that Ennis possesses elite defensive ability, pointing to the reflexes and head movement he has displayed throughout his career. His concern is that confidence in his offensive gifts has occasionally allowed him to relax defensively against opponents he believes cannot seriously threaten him.
According to Ward, those moments are unlikely to go unpunished once Ennis begins facing fighters capable of capitalizing on every mistake.
“That 30 seconds could be your kryptonite when you face that elite guy. That mental game is not a switch you can turn on and off. You don’t get no free shots on me. That’s the elite mindset,” Ward explained.
Ward also noted that Ennis himself was highly critical of his own performance after the fight, saying the unified champion recognized he should never have been caught in that position.
Roy Jones Jr. saw the situation differently.
The Hall of Famer agreed Ennis briefly relaxed, but argued it was largely a product of the fight becoming too easy after the first two rounds. Jones believes those lapses would disappear naturally against elite opposition because Ennis would remain fully locked in from the opening bell.
“Put Virgil Ortiz in front of him and watch he don’t go to sleep,” Jones said. “He won’t go to sleep against Virgil Ortiz because he knows if you go to sleep, Virgil gonna come at him.”
Despite the debate over Ennis’ defensive concentration, both Hall of Famers agreed the performance should not be overshadowed. Ennis recovered from the third-round scare, broke Zayas down with sustained body work, and forced a seventh-round stoppage to leave New York as a unified champion.
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