Xander Zayas cruises past Patrick Teixeira in first ESPN main event

Bruce Carrington picked up a solid stoppage win in the co-feature

21-year-old prospect Xander Zayas emerged victorious in his first ESPN main event, outclassing former champion Patrick Teixeira over 10 rounds.

Zayas (18-0, 12 KO) looked poised for an early finish, snapping Teixeira’s (34-5, 25 KO) head back with most of his shots and complementing them with heavy body blows. Teixeira, who had not weighed in below the middleweight limit in over three years, just seemed awkward and powerless. He landed less than 10% of his power shots in the early going while eating most of what Zayas sent his way.

Somehow, though, Teixeira just continued to stick around. Zayas was accurate, continued to target the body, and landed an impressive number of power shots round after round. He just couldn’t get rid of Teixeira; he got reasonably close in the last few rounds, but every time, Teixeira threw enough shots and moved well enough to stay alive.

Zayas walked away with two shutouts and a 99-91 on the cards. It was, on paper, a very strong performance. He just seemed to be missing that extra gear, that ferocity or genuine thudding power that he’d need to standout in an increasingly hot division.

Afterwards, he called out Erickson Lubin, Josh Kelly, and the recently signed Vito Mielnicki Jr. Not sure I see him getting any of those anytime soon; promoter conflicts will hold up the first two and I don’t see Top Rank cashing out on Mielnicki that quickly.

Carrington breaks down game De Gracia

Top Rank darling Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington once again proved himself among the best featherweight prospects in the game by stopping a very gutsy Brayan De Gracia.

De Gracia (29-4-1, 25 KO) officially took this fight on a few days’ notice after Jose Enrique Vivas ran into visa issues, but the commentators claim that he’d been preparing for a few weeks. He certainly looked ready in the first couple rounds, if not winning them then at least getting Carrington’s (12-0, 8 KO) attention with steady pressure and solid shots in the pocket.

It didn’t take long for Carrington to figure him out, though. Fighting out of a tight shoulder roll, Carrington punished De Gracia’s lunges with sharp left hands and consistently avoided De Gracia’s shots in the pocket while sneaking in heavy blows of his own. While De Gracia continued to swing heat, Carrington found more and more success before finally sitting him down in the fifth with a chopping right behind the ear.

De Gracia made it to his feet, and to Carrington’s credit, he didn’t sit on his lead. With De Gracia’s output dropping, Carrington got more comfortable sitting down on heavy punches, and some solid body work in the seventh lowered De Gracia’s guard enough for Carrington to hammer him with a pair of vicious rights that forced De Gracia to hold himself up with the ropes.

De Gracia again beat the count and remained game in the eighth, but Carrington was fully in gear, marching after him with his hands down, avoiding everything that came his way, and tattooing De Gracia with power shots until a lengthy flurry in the final seconds forced the ref into action.

Overall, very strong performance against Carrington. It was against someone he was supposed to beat, yes, but he showed off impressive timing, accuracy, and killer instinct en route to a violent finish. That said, his subsequent callout of the nearby Naoya Inoue was more than a little premature.

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