Xander Zayas and Jorge Garcia both weighed in successfully on Friday for their headliner fight for the vacant WBO junior middleweight title this Saturday night on ESPN.
Zayas-Garcia Weigh-In: Feisty Faceoff
While standing side-by-side, Zayas (21-0, 13 KOs) attempted to position his arm in front of Garcia to punk him. Garxcia (33-4, 26 KOs) wasn’t going for that and put his arm in front of Zayas.
Weigh-in Results
- Xander Zayas 154 vs. Jorge Garcia 153
- Bruce Carrington 125 vs Mateus Heita 124.8
“It’s a good style match-up. Both fighters fight for their country. You’ve got Xander Zayas. He’s very savvy, tricky, and has good offense. You’ve got Garcia. He’s rugged. He’s right and a good body puncher,” said Chris Algieri to Top Rank Boxing, previewing the Xander Zayas vs. Jorge Garcia fight.
Xander is going to need to show more power than he did in his last fight for him to do well on Saturday night against Garcia. What Zayas showed against little-known Slawa Spomer is that he needs to land a lot of shots for him to score knockouts. He’s able to do this against fighters carefully pooled from the reject pile, but he won’t be able to do this now that he’s stepping up to the world-class level.
Garcia: The Unprotected, Proven Threat
Jorge Garcia is the more proven fighter than Xander, having beaten Charles Conwell and Kudratillo Abdukakhorov in his last two fights. He hasn’t been protected by his promoters the way Zayas has. You could say he’s been developed the way fighters are supposed to be by fighting quality opposition.
“I think these two fighters match up well because of their style. This is going to be an excellent fight. They may not be the biggest names, but there’s a lot on the line,” said Algieri.
If Top Rank had been willing to put Zayas in with good opposition years ago, he’d be a bigger name. Of course, that would involve him beating the top names, and it’s doubtful that he would. The way he was staggered by Patrick Teixeira. Since then, Xander has become more of a runner and less willing to engage.
“We’ve watched him grow into what he is now,” said Algieri about Zayas. “He’s fighting for his first world title in one of the deepest divisions in the world today.”
Xander’s Rapid Aging: Career Questions
What’s surprising is how rapidly Zayas has aged. He’s gone from looking a youthful 21 to a much older fighter in one year. The 22-year-old, Xander, could easily pass for a 28- or 29-year-old. He no longer appears to be in his early 20s. It’s unclear why he’s aged so rapidly, but perhaps the strain of training has done it. He’s aged like in dog years instead of people years since 2024. He may end up having a very short career. If you’re Top Rank, you need to start pushing him faster to get the most mileage out of him.
Last Updated on 07/25/2025
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