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British light welterweight Amir Khan added the IBF title to his growing trophy cabinet by stopping veteran Zab Judah last night at Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas, NV.
From the start, Khan showed no respect for former unified welterweight champion Judah of Brooklyn, wasting very little time before launching right hand bombs at his shorter rival.
Judah threw very little during the first two rounds as Khan kept the southpaw on the defensive with long jabs and lunging right hands.
“Super Judah” did manage a few sharp counters that caused the sometimes wild Khan to become more careful but the 25 year old from Bolton, England put forth a much higher work rate.
No longer possessing the reflexes of his younger days, 33 year old Judah was getting caught flatfooted by Khan’s jabs and at times by the right hands, and could not keep up with the pace of his antagonist.
Judah also either tied up Khan, or allowed himself to be tied up, when Khan came barging in after missing with wild right hands rather than working on the inside, where the long-armed Khan would be at a disadvantage against the compact strength of Judah.
Judah started off the third more active, working the jab and was doing a better job at making Khan miss but simply could not make Khan pay for mistakes made.
In the fourth, Judah largely remained tentative, as Khan continued to control the pace and decide when then engagements would occur. Judah was effective at making Khan miss a great deal but got caught during two Khan forward drives in the latter half og the round.
By the fifth Judah was still trying to fight an opponent with much longer arms from the outside and was now bleeding from the nose as Khan began to ramp up his efforts.
Judah got in a good left to Khan’s beltline but was largely taking continued punishment. The end came when the fighters were tangled up on the inside and Khan came up with a right uppercut that landed slightly below Judah’s beltline.
As Judah fell to his knees and put his head on the canvas he was counted out at 2:47 of the fifth.
Khan, 26-1 (18), retains his WBA crown for the fifth time while capturing the IBF title. Judah now stands at 41-7 (28), losing for the first time in three years.
There were two notable middleweight fights among the support bouts as Peter Quillin, 25-0 (19), stayed on track for a title shot by putting the sixth consecutive loss on the record of Jason LeHoullier, 21-6-1 (8), via 5th round TKO and James Kirkland, 29-1 (26), continued his comeback by halting Alexis Hloros, 16-4-2 (11), in the second.
