Quote Originally Posted by diamonddavestafford
Quote Originally Posted by amat
Hey why not? Zab still drops his hands...
Zab is definitely the underdog in this one but he boxed very well against Floyd Mayweather for the first five rounds of their fight. If he can make that work for him for the entire fight this time, it could be very long night for Migue Cotto. Who knows, Zab still drops his hands but you know what? He can still punch hard too...it is not ridiculous to think that he cannot outbox Cotto like he did Mayweather and set him up for the KO (Cotto's chin has seemed somewhat suspect so far during his career, as he has been dropped by lesser and virtual unknown opponents such as in the Torres fight) somewhere within the first five or six rounds.

Dont forget Zab is a southpaw and a fast stylistic puncher. His style poses vast problems for anyone inside the boxing ring. He is a good boxer when he puts his mind to it and is able to maintain focus on sticking to his game plan. I can see him outboxing and outslicking Cotto (as he was Kostya Tsyu before he was caught) for the first half of the fight. After that it's really up in the air. Both of the guys have some question as to their chins. Cotto, though, really has no question as to his heart...this goes as a disadvantage for Zab unfortunately, because you can't say this for him as their has been fights on his resume where he has shown; to be polite, let's say, a lack of enthusiasm for fighting.

The smart pick goes to Cotto by a hair, I think. But Judah has much, much more than just a slim chance of pulling this one out...
I was just saying it's fair for Cotto to think that since...well it's been done before. Personally, I feel it will go to the cards.

But since you put forth a good post I'll do my best to reply. A few things...

1) Judah was not outboxing Mayweather, it was more of Mayweather sitting back. Judah is a front runner so for 3.5 rounds Mayweather sat back, used a lot of feints and just tried to figure him out. Zab still didn't land anything and didn't look spectacular, it was just a case of Mayweather not doing anything that gave Zab those rounds.

2) Zab is a southpaw but Cotto has the southpaw killer, the left hook. He's powerful and if Cotto puts on the ear muffs and walks Judah down then no doubt, Cotto gets hurt and he might lose. But the Cotto that beat Quintana who was a slick southpaw himself (with much better defense then Zab imo) who throws punches as he moves in and out is an absolute nightmare for Zab. Cotto may not have the best chin but he's fought through getting hurt, something Zab has never done.

3) I think there are more to Zab's struggles then him not being focused. Or maybe it's that his mental state leads to these mistakes but he never progressed. Zab has been at a stalemate since he fought Tszyu. He had progressed nicely and everything but still had prospect tendencies like dropping his hands, looping shots while coming in, backing straight out ect. Well, Tszyu took advantage of it. OK, he was still a bit green. But he has not fixed any of those bad habits, it's like he's still green. He's been given the fight of his life time and time again, and just never learned. I wouldn't have any reason to think any differently of this upcoming fight.

CC Dave, always enjoy your post.