Undefeated super welterweight contender Xander Zayas will be fighting on June 10th at The Theater at Madison Square Garden against Ronald Cruz in a bout scheduled for 10 rounds. It will be the co-feature to the Josh Taylor versus Teofimo Lopez main event that is for the WBO super lightweight title.

Zayas (15-0, 10 KOs) is currently ranked at 5 in the WBO rankings and at 9 in the WBA rankings at super welterweight. The 20 year old from San Juan, Puerto Rico scored wins over Quincy LaVallais, Elias Espadas and Alexis Salazar last year. Zayas was originally scheduled to fight on April 1st but an injury prevented him from fighting on that date. With his last bout being in the same building, Zayas is eager to get in the ring on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

“I cannot wait to fight at Madison Square Garden in front of my people on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade. This is a dream come true,” Zayas said. “Ronald Cruz is a tough, durable fighter, and I expect the best version of him on June 10th.”

Ronald “Diablo” Cruz (18-2-1, 12 KOs) will try to bounce back from a decision loss to Damian Sosa last August. Cruz had been on a streak of 17 fights without losing up to that point. The native of Los Angeles knows that this is a big spot for him and wants to take advantage of this shot against Xayas.

“I’m beyond excited to be fighting Xander Zayas,” Cruz said. “My whole life I’ve been waiting for this opportunity to test myself against top opposition on the biggest of stages. I look forward to starting a new rivalry, El Salvador against Puerto Rico. June 10, you will have two hungry lions battling it out. I can’t wait.”

Zayas-Cruz will be shown live on ESPN. There will be four additional bouts that precede Zayas-Cruz and Taylor-Lopez that will be shown on ESPN+ which include Henry Lebron (17-0, 10 KOs) against Christian Tapia (15-1, 12 KOs), Omar Rosario against Juan Carlos Rivera, and fights that will feature Bruce Carrington and heavyweight Damian Knyba with opponents that will be named at a later time.

Cover photo by James Bell of The Boxing Source