How good could Zab have been... if?

[Dizaster]

Given his boxing skills, speed, power through combinations, and natural athleticism,, BUT IF he actually had full control of his temperament, concentration, and the heart of a Mexican fighter?


I ask as i'm watching some old Zab fights, and just about every fight he's been in, against even the toughest fighters he's faced, he's troubled them with his talent. He's caught them with counters, been able to land combinations when he let fly, been very good defensively... I think he had the natural ability, boxing skill wise, to be as dominant as a Mayweather. I mean, Mayweather is something really special, and just when you feel he has some sort of weakness, no one is able to exploit it...
By the end of a Zab fight, you could always list his weakness's that the other fighter exploited and go the better of it..
But Zab at his best, if he could keep the focus and concentration, and been able to fight on like a Barerra or Vasquez through adversity, could have ruled a Welterweight division with the Authority of a Mayweather or most of those who ruled it in the past...

Thoughts?

[the big K]

Given his boxing skills, speed, power through combinations, and natural athleticism,, BUT IF he actually had full control of his temperament, concentration, and the heart of a Mexican fighter?


I ask as i'm watching some old Zab fights, and just about every fight he's been in, against even the toughest fighters he's faced, he's troubled them with his talent. He's caught them with counters, been able to land combinations when he let fly, been very good defensively... I think he had the natural ability, boxing skill wise, to be as dominant as a Mayweather. I mean, Mayweather is something really special, and just when you feel he has some sort of weakness, no one is able to exploit it...
By the end of a Zab fight, you could always list his weakness's that the other fighter exploited and go the better of it..
But Zab at his best, if he could keep the focus and concentration, and been able to fight on like a Barerra or Vasquez through adversity, could have ruled a Welterweight division with the Authority of a Mayweather or most of those who ruled it in the past...

Thoughts?

I was thinking the exact same thing after re-watching mayweather judah and cotto judah the other day. I think if he was mentally stronger he could have been a force at 140 or 147.

[Master]

He was a talented fighter but he is the way he was, and would not do any better. What if Pernell had a punch, Hearns a good chin they would be different fighters and may not have been as good.

[Pugilistic]

Alot better because the skillset was there. It was his lack of confidence when he got pressured that cost him alot of fights but that is who he is.

When you think about it, thats the same with almost any fighter.

For example, Cotto would of been better if he had better stamina and defense.

Paul Williams would be much better if he could defend well.

Wladimir Klitschko would of been better if he had a granite chin.

[Spicoli]

Naturally he was a cant miss,became a front runner of sorts but his problem is between his ears.You cannot train that away.Hes never matured and could be undisciplined in ring,too stuck on super star and maybe it had something to do with the crowd he surrounded himself with.

[Master]

You would have thought he would have matured with age. But no.

[Andre]

He was a talented fighter but he is the way he was, and would not do any better. What if Pernell had a punch, Hearns a good chin they would be different fighters and may not have been as good.

Good points... Can a weakness make the fighters style?
If leg Iron Mike had a real family at the time I bet we wouldnt have seen that vengeful hunger.

[CutMeMick]

Given his boxing skills, speed, power through combinations, and natural athleticism,, BUT IF he actually had full control of his temperament, concentration, and the heart of a Mexican fighter?


I ask as i'm watching some old Zab fights, and just about every fight he's been in, against even the toughest fighters he's faced, he's troubled them with his talent. He's caught them with counters, been able to land combinations when he let fly, been very good defensively... I think he had the natural ability, boxing skill wise, to be as dominant as a Mayweather. I mean, Mayweather is something really special, and just when you feel he has some sort of weakness, no one is able to exploit it...
By the end of a Zab fight, you could always list his weakness's that the other fighter exploited and go the better of it..
But Zab at his best, if he could keep the focus and concentration, and been able to fight on like a Barerra or Vasquez through adversity, could have ruled a Welterweight division with the Authority of a Mayweather or most of those who ruled it in the past...

Thoughts?

In other words how good could Zab have been if he was completely another fighter?



Never liked his punk ass and I'm glad his career went down faster then Kim Kardashian on Ray J...
Watchin Cotto beat his ass all night was one of the more satisfying moments in boxing for me.

[Mar]

There's other threads here where i've stated before that when i first saw zab back in the day i thought he'd be one of the greatest fighters of all time. But like most of you stated here he is also one of the most unfocused, undiciplined guys as well. And to me he landed right there in the middle of those two in his career. I mean no matter who he's fought even mayweather there's never been a fight where i've ever thought he couldn't win......he just doesn't. If boxing were only four or six rounds he still might have been one of the greatest, but to ask him to fight for a full 12 or sometimes even 10.....good luck. And he wants to fight alexander ?? Yea sure zab.

[Andre]

There's other threads here where i've stated before that when i first saw zab back in the day i thought he'd be one of the greatest fighters of all time. But like most of you stated here he is also one of the most unfocused, undiciplined guys as well. And to me he landed right there in the middle of those two in his career. I mean no matter who he's fought even mayweather there's never been a fight where i've ever thought he couldn't win......he just doesn't. If boxing were only four or six rounds he still might have been one of the greatest, but to ask him to fight for a full 12 or sometimes even 10.....good luck. And he wants to fight alexander ?? Yea sure zab.

He had unearned tickets on himself right from the word go.Tried for gangster team look and all that stuff Tyson got up to.
Skilled yes but when those type of tickets start getting removed, even pre fight mentally, its a shame they were tagged on unstable foundations is all. Kostya pulled the fuse clean out of one of Zabs jibing mental bombs simply by changing the subject into something very close to Zabs heart at the time. It was like the cord got pulled out of record player.

[terrorsid]

shit judah is one of my favorite fighters he's entertaining win or lose

[J_Undisputed]

Its kind of hard to say. Skill wise,he had a natural talent for evading punches. He had good power, a low center of gravity. His chin would always be a problem, but with the right training and ring savvy, it could have been protected.
At heart Zabs a knucklehead and you could see it in some of the things he did even early on. He had good influences around him early on in Lou Duva and Ronnie Shields. They kept him humble for the most part and on a path when things went a little crazy in the ring (Like the piledriver he got from Wilfredo Negron).. Reminded him to use his skills and what he worked for in the gym and stuff like vengeance and anger would take care of themselves with the opportunity presented itself. They provided a frame for him and structure. He used to stutter really badly in the beginning and but never hesitated in the ring. It was part of him defining himself and coming into his own.
When he got close to a title fight and left Ronnie and Lou and put his father in the corner. He started getting knocked down. Not training as hard and the knucklehead tendencies became reinforced by his knucklehead father. You could tell he didn't train that hard and was dismissive of the thought of preparing like he used to and his father convinced him it was all skill and he could do whatever he wanted to his opponents. So he started stepping straight back with his hands down (Tszyu, Millet) and hitting fighters when they were already down (David Sample) ... all these things that showed lack of discipline. Theres 2 schools of thought on this... He was knuckle head who's level of competition caught up to him when it got stiffer .... or he started preparing down to his level of competition because he didn't feel he had to try as hard; a bad attitude uncaged and reinforced by his father in desire to keep the money in the family.
Looking at the later fights that he lost but still performed well early on in, like people mentioned above... kind of discredits the first theory. Considering the same kind of drop off (except on the scales) that David Tua suffered after he left Ronnie and Lou (who always tried to keep him somewhere near 220lbs).. it also lends credibility to the second theory.

Guided by Lou and Ronnie, Zab could have been something special... Lou had Sweet Pea so its easy to say he knew how far he could take Zab and who to keep him away from and how to handle the people he had to go through. Ronnie's also a good trainer and could have taken Zab the Rest of the way when Lou couldn't get up for the physical stuff. But this is all dependent on how long and far they could have kept Zab away from being a knucklehead, knowing he would be around that kind of influence every day with his dad and the people he hung around with. Its all dependent on that. (To those saying Zab beat Spinks with his dad in his corner... Even a blind chicken finds a worm sometimes...) Just my opinion of course... I could be wrong.