Boxing Perspective: In Defense Of Zab Judah

I hated writing the words that make up the title to this piece, but after seeing a replay of Cotto vs. Judah last week, I had to admit that Zab doesn’t get due credit for something boxing fans find pretty important: fighting dangerous opponents. Sure, he loses to them more than he wins, but can a case be made that he ducks them?

Kostya Tszyu had gotten much better since his humiliating defeat at the hands of Vince Phillips. Zab was 27-0 when he put his IBF Light Welterweight belt on the line against Tszyu in November of 2001 and we all know what happened when “Super” got a little lazy in the ring.

This was also after he successfully defended his belt against British fighter Junior Witter in the United Kingdom.

Zab took a tune-up in 2002 before fighting the still capable Demarcus Corley a year later, this time snatching up the WBO belt at 140 before fighting Cory Spinks at 147 in 2004.

Spinks was fresh off a victory over haymaker machine Ricardo Mayorga the December before. Super Judah lost, but would claim revenge 10 months later via 9th round TKO.

Carlos Baldomir’s 41-9-6 record was very deceptive and was supposed to have been a stepping stone for Judah on the way to a mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Perhaps Team Judah hadn’t considered Baldomir hadn’t lost a fight in over 7 years? Perhaps when they looked at his résumé and saw wins over a 41-42 Verdell Smith, the multitude of fights in Argentina, all the repeat opponents or a combination of all three, they figured Baldomir to be only a stay-busy opponent?

But Zab realized different midway through the fight when Ta-Ta stunned him in the 7th and had him running away for the rest of the fight.

“Amazingly”, the fight with Mayweather happened anyway a few months later. Zab was masterful for three full rounds until Mayweather’s patience paid off and Judah had to uppercut Floyd below the belt to keep from being kayoed.

The resulting melee earned Judah a fine and a six month suspension, but a year later, two months after another tune-up, he was fighting Miguel Cotto.

Zab was typical Zab, speed and power before becoming typical Zab, looking like a lost child in a mall on his way to a KO loss.

And most recently, Judah was set to fight Shane Mosley back on May 31 before suffering a bathroom injury requiring fifty stitches, resulting in the cancelation of the fight.

But after that, Judah managed to garner a match against the very capable, if inconsistent, Joshua Clottey for the IBF Welterweight belt.

Clottey wasn’t the toughest of Zab’s opponents, but with wins over the likes of Richard Gutierrez, Shamone Alvarez and a faded Diego Corrales and losses to only Carlos Baldomir and Antonio Margarito, the New Yorker by way of Ghana is no walk in the park for anyone at 147 pounds.

He has an iron chin, quick hands and is a dedicated body puncher and against that diffiuclt combination, once again, Zab was Zab and looked to be winning spectacularly before failing magnificently.

After the bout, some of us have said how we knew he would do exactly what he did. Some of us were even surprised.

But what we should all recognize is that Zab did what he’s done over and over again; giving the fans something exciting in a risky fight.