“I feel like Ennis, he was tired too,” Berlanga said to Fight Hub TV. “I feel like he gassed out quick, maybe from overtraining in camp and stuff. He didn’t look like himself as far as conditioning-wise. It looked like he was real tired.”
Berlanga admitted he had never seen Ennis hurt the way he was when Zayas landed a series of clean right hands in the third round.
“It was a lot of things that was going through my mind,” Berlanga continued. “I’m like, ‘Damn.’ Because I never seen Boots hurt like that. He was hurt. And not just that round. I feel like the next round he was out of it.”
Watching the action unfold, Berlanga thought Zayas was on the verge of producing one of the biggest upsets of the year.
“When he hit him again with the right hand, you see Boots holding on and his legs got weak. I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s about to stop him.’ Then towards the end of the third round, Boots came back. That’s when I knew this was a crazy fight,” said Edgar.
Despite questioning Ennis’ conditioning, Berlanga praised both unbeaten fighters for taking the kind of risk boxing often lacks.
“It was an amazing fight. Boxing needs those fighters that are young, undefeated, to go clash against each other,” Berlanga said. “Nobody lost any credit. Even though Xander got stopped in the seventh round, people still respect him. They both put on a great performance.”
The victory improved Ennis to 36-0 (32 KOs) and made him a unified champion in a second weight class after adding Zayas’ WBO title to his WBA belt. While Berlanga acknowledged Ennis ultimately proved why he is one of boxing’s elite fighters, he believes the performance also raised legitimate questions about whether the Philadelphia star was at his physical best on fight night.
