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Zab Judah refers to his welterweight title rematch with Cory Spinks on Saturday night as the 13th round. That’s enough to rile the champion, who arose after a knockdown in the 12th and final round to win a unanimous decision and retain the undisputed title in the first bout in April. “The end? Why the end? Don’t that happen in boxing?” Spinks said Friday after the fighters weighed in. “It was a good punch, I’m not going to take that from him, but that happens.
“I wasn’t hurt to where he could knock me out or nothing like that.”
Spinks, 34-2 with 11 knockouts, said he’s fighting Judah again only because of that good punch with 25 seconds left in the bout.
“People ain’t looking at the whole fight, how I just dominated the whole fight,” Spinks said. “I got up, I was cool, I was fine. He rushed back in there and tried to finish the deal, but I was fine.”
His trainer and manager, Kevin Cunningham, said the problem was that Spinks was in too much control.
“Cory got kind of bored,” Cunningham said. “He was dominating when he got caught with the shot, he was winning the 12th round big. Instead of boxing it out and being cautious he made a mistake, and he paid for it.”
Spinks warned that too much confidence based on that knockdown would not be safe for Judah, 32-2 with 23 knockouts.
“It can get him hurt, I’m telling you,” Spinks said. “Pay attention to what I say.”
There’s no shortage of confidence in the Judah camp. The challenger was already talking about the next fight, and criticized Spinks as a “light puncher” even though he was knocked down in the 11th round.
“He’s not a puncher at all, he knocked me down and I was more embarrassed than anything,” Judah said. “That’s a knockdown? I’m going to show you what a real knockdown is and I went out there and showed him.
“I 95 percent achieved my goal.”
The fight, in Spinks’ hometown, is the first major bout in St. Louis in more than 40 years, and it’s a 20,000-seat sellout because of the local hero factor. Judah believes that can be an advantage to him because of the potential distractions confronting Spinks, who still lives in suburban St. Charles.
Spinks and his entourage appeared at the weigh-in wearing St. Louis Cardinals caps.
“He has a lot of pleasing to do, a lot of fans and media and friends and family to try to impress,” Judah said. “I’ve got one job here and that’s to take him out.”
Spinks avoided potential problems by training in Las Vegas, and didn’t return to St. Louis until five days before the fight.
“No distractions at all,” Cunningham said. “He’s been locked down in his hotel room and he’s only come out to take care of business.
“We had a system in place to take care of tickets and all of that, and there’s been no hassles with the family, so we’re all good.”
Spinks’ famous father, former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, attended the weigh-in. Both Leon and Michael Spinks, another former heavyweight champion, will be at the fight as well.
Leon Spinks, who lives in suburban Chicago, said he never misses one of his son’s fights, and expects Cory to develop a bigger punch.
“He’s getting it, he’s working at it,” Leon Spinks said. “But he’s more of a boxer.”
