“He just was out that night,” Jones said on All The Smoke Fight. “He got to go back and get a sports psychiatrist first to put that back in his mind, because once that’s broken, that has to be fixed.”
Jones believes too many fighters ignore the mental effects of a difficult loss.
“A lot of time when they get broken, people don’t go back and fix that,” Jones said. “That has to be fixed first psychologically.”
Despite that assessment, the former four-division world champion remains convinced Zayas can reclaim his place among boxing’s elite.
“If it gets fixed psychologically, he can come back and be world champ again because he has the tools. He has the skills,” Jones said.
“He was one punch away from it that night. He got all the goods. He just got to get that part where he got broken, what some people call quitting. He got to get that fixed psychologically. He got to get rewired again so that’s not there.”
Jones closed by expressing confidence that Zayas’ age and ability still give him plenty of time to recover from the setback.
“I hope he does whatever he got to do to get back in contender and then title contention,” Jones said. “He young. Get him a good sports psychiatrist, get that first and get back in that gym. He’ll be champ again because he that good.”
Zayas entered the Ennis fight undefeated and as a unified champion, but his loss has sparked debate over how quickly he should return and whether he can regain the momentum that made him one of the sport’s top young stars. Roy’s view is that the answer depends less on Zayas’ physical skills than on restoring the confidence he believes was shaken by the defeat.
