It won’t be the first time Xander Zayas and Abass Baraou have stepped into the ring against each other when they meet in a 154-pound unification title bout January 31.

Zayas and Baraou have spent numerous rounds and training camps sparring in South Florida ahead of their clash at Coliseo de Puerto Rico in Zayas’ hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Having witnessed what happened inside the squared circle between the 154-pound champions, Zayas’ longtime trainer, Javiel Centeno, believes Baraou will bring another level out of his prized pupil.

“I think Abass is a type of fighter that will bring out the best in Xander,” Centeno told The Ring. “They have sparred, probably sparred 60 to 80 rounds, something like that, but sparring is sparring. There are certain things that we’re specifically working on, so it’s not like Abass was seeing everything that we want to do, because we’re working on things specifically for his opponent at the time.

“It’s great that you get to see him, but we know he’s an aggressive fighter. We know that he’s durable. We know that he’s strong. There have been a lot of fighters who were aggressive before facing Xander. Xander tends to tame some of these fighters who want to come and be aggressive and bang.”

Zayas (22-0, 13 KOs) holds the WBO title and is ranked fifth in The Ring's top 10. Baraou (17-1, 9 KOs) is the WBA champion and eighth among The Ring's contenders for a vacant championship.

The unification bout between Zayas and Baraou will be just the second to take place in Puerto Rico. Ivan Calderon and Giovani Segura met in the other bout in August 2010, with Mexico’s Segura defeating Calderon of Puerto Rico by eighth-round knockout.

Zayas will fight in Puerto Rico for just the second time in his career, with his lone bout on his home island taking place in his fourth pro fight in 2020. Zayas, 23, defeated Jorge Garcia by unanimous decision July 26 to win the then-vacant WBO title and become boxing’s youngest champion at the time.

With a win over Baraou, he would be boxing’s youngest unified champion and the first Puerto Rican to accomplish the feat on home soil.

Baraou, 31, of Aalen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, pulled off an upset in his last bout, defeating previously unbeaten Yoenis Tellez by unanimous decision to win the WBA interim title August 23. Baraou and Tellez went back and forth for 11 rounds, and with the fight seemingly still hanging in the balance entering the final round, Baraou dropped Tellez in the waning moments of the fight to leave little doubt that he did enough to earn the best win of his career.

The prevailing wisdom is that sparring holds some, but not significant weight when compared to a real fight, let alone a unification title bout on the home soil of one of the champions. Despite Zayas and Baraou’s extensive experience against each other, Centeno believes the meaningful differences will play out in his fighter’s favor.

“It does help, but we understand as a coach and fighter, sparring is a little bit different,” Centeno said. “You have headgear, you have 16-ounce gloves and in this particular case, when Xander was sparring Abass, he always used 18-ounce gloves, so Abass never felt his true power. He’s going to be a little shocked.

“You do see certain nuances in the way they move. You see certain tendencies that they have, and those are things that we keep in our pocket, and we train for that. We also look to see what our sparring partners exposed in us and try to close those windows and doors as well. With Abass’ style, we had to make sure that certain things were adjusted, so that we could close all the doors that we needed closed for Abass.”