Roy Jones Jr: Xander Zayas needs sports psychologist after Ennis loss

Roy Jones Jr says Xander Zayas needs to see a sports psychologist before he can bounce back from his stoppage loss to Jaron Ennis. The Hall of Famer told Andre Ward that Zayas has the physical tools to become a world champion but must address the mental damage from his recent defeat first.

"Well, I'm going to be honest with you. He needs to see a sports psychologist first," Jones said, per Bad Left Hook. "If he's smart, he goes see a sports psychologist, get his mind back right. I'm just being real with you, because you got to turn back on your brain."

What Jones sees as broken in Zayas

Jones framed the issue in stark terms. Prizefighting requires a kill-or-die mentality, he said, and once that gets broken in a fighter's head it must be repaired professionally. "In a prizefight, in your mind, if you're going to be a real prizefighter, you got to be willing to kill or die," he explained. Zayas stopped responding to that instinct during the Ennis fight, Jones believes, and no amount of technical work fixes that.

The four-division champion said Zayas has all the skills to compete at the top level if he can restore his mental edge. "If it gets fixed psychologically, he can come back and be world champion again because he has the tools, he has the skills," Jones added. "He got all the goods, he just got to go get that part where he got broken, which is some people call quitting, he got to go get that fixed psychologically."

Zayas has not announced his next move since the loss. Jones suggested the Puerto Rican welterweight should work with a sports psychologist before returning to camp.

Reported via:

• Bad Left Hook — ‘That has to be fixed’: Roy Jones Jr says Xander Zayas would benefit from sports psychologist