Boxing News’s Elliot Worsell caught up with Zayas just before his breakout win over Patrick Teixeira on June 8 in New York.
LIKE plenty of children, every decision made and turn taken by Xander Zayas in his early years was one governed by necessity rather than the luxury of choice. He moved to America from Puerto Rico at the age of 11, for example, simply because that’s where his mother and stepfather wanted to put down their roots.
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“I don’t feel the pressure, to be honest. I feel like I’m moving in the right way and in the right direction. The whole team knows the goal and knows what we want. Little by little we’re getting there. I don’t think about being the ‘Next this’ or the ‘Next that’. I just have to be myself. I want to be happy with what I do, have fun with what I do, and make both my family and my team proud. Hopefully, I can make everybody who looks up to me and likes me as a professional fighter proud, too.”