The 2 fighters are conversant in one another, having shared roughly 80 rounds of sparring earlier of their careers, which helps explain why the fight was made. That familiarity doesn’t reduce the problem. Sparring is managed, with coaches stepping in and the pace coming down once enough has been seen, conditions that don’t exist in a unification fight.
Those rounds also got here years ago. Baraou had not yet settled fully into the pressure style he now relies on, and Zayas had not been asked to administer twelve rounds against an opponent who refuses to present ground. What works in a gym setting doesn’t all the time hold once the rounds keep moving without interruption.
Baraou fights on his terms, walking forward while throwing, continuing to work when shots land clean, and staying in range reasonably than resetting after single punches or combos. He accepts contact if it allows him to stay close and keep working, an approach that forces opponents to reply every round.
Zayas wins fights through timing, positioning, and control reasonably than power. Against someone prepared to maintain stepping in, that control must be maintained repeatedly, as any lapse gives ground back and invites pressure.
The fight takes place on the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, where Zayas can have the gang behind him and the familiarity of home. Crowd energy doesn’t make a pressure fighter give ground once he commits to staying inside. If fighting at home plays a job, it’s more more likely to appear later, when rounds are tight and judges are separating clean scoring from constant forward movement.
Zayas has been guided rigorously since early in his skilled profession, and that path has been watched closely. If this fight goes the gap and leaves room for disagreement, it should be folded into the best way his profession has been tracked and evaluated up to now.
This bout puts Zayas in front of a seasoned champion prepared to take risks from the opening bell, leaving little room to ease into the fight. How he handles sustained pressure here will shape how this stage of his profession is viewed once the scores are read.