January thirty-first at José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan. At stake will be the WBO super welterweight title (Zayas' first defense) and WBA light middleweight title (Baraou's first defense). This will be the first title unification bout of 2026 (and second match for multiple belts, with Amanda Serrano defending both of hers versus Reina Jordan Téllez on January third), with Baraou's promotion in September from interim to full champion. Three days later, Zayas' initial WBO defense against Giovanni Santillán was announced - but Zayas himself made the decision to pivot to Baraou for a larger prize. The undefeated hometown fighter has a half inch of height on his Togolese-German opponent. He is also eight years his junior. They both have solid - and numerically very similar - amateur records. 118-14 for Zayas and 139-17 for Baraou.
Yoenis Tellez hits a hell of a lot harder than Zayas and he didn't slow up Baraou's non stop aggression, I doubt Zayas' featherfists will dissuade him all that much either. So... Zayas UD, in a match that everyone on the RBR will have Abass winning. This is Top Rank after all.
I probably won't pick Baraou in the prediction league, but will be rooting for him (and won't be surprised if we all score it for him)
Oh man, poor Giovanni Santillán...he's actually on this undercard. He went from the main event spot challenging Zayas to now a ten-rounder with 39 year old Courtney Pennington (who is 17-11-3 and on a five loss slump)
...have I just been hitting the bubbly a little too hard, or does Xander vs. Abass sound more like a Mortal Kombat fight than real-life people?
Good fight, I'm glad to see a unification at 154 which has been a bit of a mess for the last couple years it feels like (albeit a very talent-laden and exciting mess). I believe in Zayas' ability and I think he'll show his pedigree against Barou, who is himself a very capable fighter and a bit of a hard-luck warrior.
