By Sean Crose
Xander Zayas, the rising 13-0 junior middleweight, took on the 22-4-0 Elias Espadas in a scheduled 8 rounder Saturday night at Resorts World Las Vegas. The match was the co-main event of Top Rank’s Teofimo Lopez-Pedro Campas card and was broadcast live by ESPN. The 19-0 Zayas got to work right away, moving in quickly with his jab. A missile of a left put Espadas to the mat a minute into the first. Espadas bravely got to his feet, and Zayas got right back to work pursuing his man. Needless to say, Espadas finished the round on his feet.
The 31 year old Espadas appeared to be adequately recovered from the knockdown by the second round, but was caught hard by Zayas on several occasions throughout the chapter. Zayas landed hard and with regularity on his man throughout the third. By the fourth it was worth wondering how many clean shots to the head Espadas and his team intended for him to take. Then, at the very start of the fifth, Zayas put his man down again. The referee had seen enough, and stopped the fight with Espadas back on his feet.