KEYSHAWN DAVIS isn’t the only undefeated, top-rated Top Rank contender who will face an unbeaten veteran February 14 in New York.
Boxing News has learned Puerto Rican junior middleweight Xander Zayas will square off against Germany’s Slawa Spomer in the 10-round co-feature that night at Madison Square Garden’s Theater. ESPN will televise Davis’ first title shot, a 12-round fight against Denys Berinchyk for the WBO belt, later the night of Valentine’s Day.
Zayas (20-0, 12 KOs) is the WBO’s No. 1 contender for its junior middleweight champ, Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs), of Coachella, California. Omaha’s Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) – a four-division champion who is commonly considered one of boxing’s three best, pound-for-pound – owns the WBO interim championship in the 154-pound division and is thus the mandatory challenger for Fundora’s title.
Spomer (20-0, 11 KOs) is ranked No. 10 by the WBO. The 32-year-old contender is mostly unknown among American boxing fans. Matchmakers and executives for Bob Arum’s Top Rank nevertheless consider him the most imposing opponent of the 22-year-old Zayas’ five-year professional career.
Spomer has beaten three undefeated opponents since November 2021.
Most notably, Spomer defeated France’s Milan Prat (24-1, 18 KOs) by 10th-round technical knockout in October 2023 in Oberhausen, Germany. Spomer was ahead by big margins on all three scorecards – 89-77, 88-78 and 87-80 – when that WBO elimination match was stopped by referee Manuel Palomo.
As for Zayas, the Sunrise, Florida native most recently shut out Mexico’s Damian Sosa (25-3, 12 KOs) on all three scorecards to win their 10-rounder by unanimous decision September 27 at Madison Square Garden’s Theater. Zayas reportedly was considered as the next opponent for WBC interim super welterweight champ Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs), but Ortiz, of Grand Prairie, Texas, instead will defend his WBC belt against Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) on the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol pay-per-view undercard February 22 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Berinchyk (19-0, 9 KOs) will make his first defense of the WBO 135-pound crown versus Davis (12-0, 8 KOs), of Norfolk, Virginia.
