"i spy an upset" Mayweather had better watch out!"

www.eastsideboxing.com

03.04.06 - By Chris Acosta: You can only have things your way for so long. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has had it his way so much you’d think he was endorsed by Burger King. Every time you think an opponent has a chance to beat him, he reminds us that logic is always in his corner. He plays the bad boy act but underneath all the bling and regrettable commentary he is a supremely dedicated athlete.

One by one, his challengers are eaten up and pooped out right in front of our eyes and we wonder how someone can make good, solid professional fighters appear so…human. Enter Zab Judah.

Now Zab isn’t my favorite guy in the world and in his last bout, a shocking loss against unheralded Argentinian Carlos Baldomir, he looked like an ordinary human and not the champion who was supposed to have defended his IBF title.. Zab blamed Don King for overworking the promotion (which in retrospect acted out as a double- whammy since more people got to see Zab lose) which supposedly left him drained. Was there truth to it? Who knows? Judah has made some rather spiteful remarks with regards to other fighters’ excuses so now it’s his turn to absorb the “yeah right’s” and eye rolls. For a man with his kind of ego that has to hurt a lot more than it would for someone humble.

Forget all these articles proclaiming Zab’s “maturity”. He probably won’t ever change. It used to bother me until I realized that hey, at least the guy is real about who he is. There have been scores of stories in every magazine and website where a trainer says that his charge stays home and reads the bible and never uses a curse word, which I can only assume is to endear him to the media. Those kinds of quotes however, are outdated; remnants of another era. When I read that a guy who wants to be a champion dances around in his living room while “The Age Of Aquarius” plays in the background, I don’t see it as refreshing or saintly. I see it as weird. Zab Judah is not a guy I want over for dinner while my mom is visiting. He might say all the right things for a while but eventually he’s going to revert back to his core. It’s the same thing that has been happening in many of his fights. He shows up in shape and often overwhelms his opponents with an intimidating mixture of speed, power, and punching angles. When he’s in this mode, he looks like, well, Floyd Mayweather.

But just as quickly as he’s dazzling does something strange happen: he begins that frustrating fall into dreamland. What he is thinking about we don’t know, but in an instant he can snap out of his daze with a vengeance; like a sleeping baby awaken by a loud noise.

Mayweather wins, not only because he is a wonderful fighter. He wins because he is blessed with the kinds of gifts that are too difficult for more workmanlike boxers to overcome. Jose Luis Castillo gave him all kinds of trouble because he was able to match Floyd in one major department: focus. Zab’s major weakness is a lack of focus but ironically he can match Mayweather in the speed and reflex category like no one else. And he also has a decided power edge.

Think about it: DeMarcus Corley rocked Floyd a few times and he isn’t as quick as Judah. All in all, Judah’s physical ability could trouble the sport’s best fighter to a degree he has not yet experienced. For years Roy Jones Jr. got away with fighting boxers who simply were not as fast as him. What if he had someone to match his speed during his prime? Would he have been able to cope?

I believe that Zab Judah has a great chance to win this fight. And not just win but shock Mayweather with a quick stoppage. If he attacks early and hard, maybe he gets Floyd to return fire and catches him flush with that left hand. It’s happened to great fighters before and if my palm reader is right, will happen on April 8th.

(I was just kidding about that last part).