Why did Xander Zayas choose to fight toe to toe with Boots instead of boxing at a distance?

He got caught in the 1st round & that changed his game plan.
We see if he stays at 154lb

 

He tried to fight at range and couldnt.. Got hit with some big punches in round 1 and dropped

He tried to fight at range and had success in round 3

In round 5 he got dropped and nearly stopped

In round 6 he got stopped

Hes just not that good

 

He could have potentially gotten Boots out in the 3rd or 4th, he definitely had him on ***** street for a decent while but just couldn't turn the screws just right the way he needed to in order to really finish him and Boots, to his credit, stayed as composed as you'd hope for in that situation.

I think Zayas' team genuinely thought Boots wouldn't measure up to 154 and Xanders best strategy was to use what they perceived to be a significant physical advantage. Basically the thesis they proposed is that Boots got complacent being a weight bully at 147 and wouldn't know how to respond in a situation where he was being imposed upon as the smaller fighter. Either this clearly isn't the case for Boots or perhaps Xander was just a little too underripe to execute it to its fullest extent.

 

Xander figured out immediately that he could not outbox Boots. In fact, Boots hit him cleanly with the first jab he threw. It noticeably jolted Xander AND he decided right then and there to take his chances in a firefight. Unfortunately, he lacks the one punch power that could’ve significantly improved his chances AND he took a lot of damage prior to rocking Boots in round 3. Props to Boots on a great win as a 5-1 favorite. However, a 154 pound Mike McCallum would unstitch Boots like a disciplined shoe cobbler.

 

Ennis is a bad match up for Mike imo

 

Boots pretty much forced him to fight that way. A lot of the time when you get hurt your game plan goes out the window, some guys bite down and fight back hard like Zayas did others just fold immediately and get stopped.

 

He tried to box at first but saw that boots was too quick with the jab so he abandoned boxing within the first 30 seconds and said im the bigger man ill bang it out with him. He gave up too early on his game plan

 

Considering the fact Mccallum was beyond a shadow of a doubt the greatest JMW of all time, that doesn't really weight heavily on Boots as a JMW. There is no one I'd pick to beat Mccallum at JMW.....................ever

Original question:
Gameplan went immediately out the window once he got popped and he was conceding too much so he had to try to make a last stand (a very early one but yeah). It ultimately didn't work. Respect to him for taking the fight though. I don't think he'll lose too much from this first loss.

 

His strategy had very little to do with it,, Zayas was simply outclassed.

 

i was puzzled as well. zanders defense is his legs, he steps out of the way of fire, he is not a stand your ground and use your waist type of fighter. he lacks the head movement to fight that way. he also didnt have the instinct to press him when he had him hurt, he laid off the gas and let him get his feet back. completely failed as a general in there.

 

I didn't think the kid was that bad, more like Ennis was very good. Still as good as Ennis was, I felt for a fair bit of that fight that Xander was about to land heavy and get Boots out of there. Would love to see a rematch in 2-3 years when Zayas has added strings to his bow.