Jaron “Boots” Ennis was forced to trim a bit of his beard length ahead of Saturday night’s fight with Xander Zayas.
DAZN’s Chris Mannix said the issue came up this morning, with Zayas’ team “requesting” the beard trim. Ennis, in Mannix’s words, with a smirk, “politely declined.”
But the New York commission did rule that Ennis had to trim the beard a bit, which is not that unusual. Some commissions will let things go, some have their limits, and sometimes it never comes up because neither team really cares.
Ennis (35-0, 31 KO) and Zayas (23-0, 13 KO) both made weight today, with Ennis coming in at 153 lbs and Zayas at 153¾ lbs, both below the limit of 154.
If nothing else, it can be a bit of a psychological move for a team to request the opponent trim the beard. Even if it doesn’t really matter to either side, it’s a request, or even a demand. Just a little mental chess move if nothing else.
But either way, Ennis will have slightly less beard on Saturday night.
Zayas will be defending his WBA and WBO super welterweight titles against former welterweight titleholder Ennis in the DAZN pay-per-view main event on Saturday. Check out our predictions and fight breakdown here!
