Is the new Zab Judah really the old Zab Judah with a new corner man? That question will be answered tomorrow night (July 23) when IBF titlist Judah faces WBA title-holder Amir Khan in the junior welterweight division’s second unification bout of 2011.
With his serious training finished, Judah is relaxed and in good spirits on this Friday afternoon. He’s 3-0 since returning to 140 pounds last summer with a third round knockout of Jose Armando Santa Cruz. His whipping left uppercut knockdown caught the attention of HBO executives, who hadn’t had Judah main event on their network since he lost a technical decision to Joshua Clottey in 2008. His November bout against Lucas Martin Matthysse saw Judah come back from a knockdown in round 10 to gut out a very close split decision to become ranked #2 for the vacant IBF title. In March, Judah remained composed after a balance knockdown in the fourth to knock out Kaizer Mabuza in round seven to claim the IBF strap.
Although flawed, those performances had a focus and composure not consistently seen over Judah’s 15 year career. It’s a change he first attributes to converting from Judaism to Christianity last year. Secondly, Judah realized that appearing in Lil Kim rap videos and playing music CEO were detrimental distractions to his boxing career.
“The biggest change with Zab Judah is my focus,” Judah said. “God gave me the mindset to allow me to focus solely on what I have to do in boxing. Before I was trying to mix and match and do too many things at one time. I had a record label and all kinds of stuff going on. It detoured me from what my true goal was. Now I’m locked and loaded.”
Judah’s newfound dedication to his career made him hire retired Hall of Fame boxer Pernell Whitaker as his trainer. The partnership began successfully in the Mabuza fight, and holds irony in that early in Judah’s career writer Max Kellerman made the infamous hyperbolic statement of Judah being “Pernell Whitaker with punching power.” While Sweet Pea’s legendary defense cannot be replicated, Judah hinted that elusiveness was a main component of their second training camp together in preparation for the Khan fight.
“Working with Pernell has allowed me to focus more on defense,” said Judah. “Defense wins fights, basketball and football. In the game of boxing, if a person can’t hit you, they can’t beat you. I’m satisfied with my fundamentals these days. I got the best defensive master there is.”
Neither Judah nor Khan has been able to shake the tag of having weak chins. The derogatory criticism stems from respective first losses to Kostya Tszyu (KO2) and Breidis Prescott (KO1). According to Judah, the difference is that his defeat came 10 years ago. When he looks at Khan, Judah sees the same early 20s cockiness that caused him to underestimate older opponents.
“I’ve been through what Amir Khan is going through now,” Judah recalled. “I remember myself being unfocused and cocky. That made me have stumbling blocks. And I think with me Amir Khan is going to run into something he’s never seen before.”
Part of that newfound maturity for Judah is knowing when to swallow his pride. He claims to have done just that for this negotiation when Khan allegedly threatened to walk if Judah received any revenue from the UK pay-per-view sales. Instead of putting the issue on blast in interviews and press conferences, Judah chose a more subtle approach to hit back at Khan.
“In order for me to get this fight Amir Khan said if I were to get any of the UK sales he would back out of the fight,” Judah disclosed. “It bothered me because Khan is a fairly new guy and I’ve fought overseas and have a good following. I let it go because I didn’t want a great fight not to happen. If I wanted to be money hungry, I could’ve backed out. They misunderstood my stance. If I’m not eligible for the revenue, I shouldn’t be eligible to do any UK promotions for the fight. After the fight I’ll clear it up for anyone.”
The one thing Zab Judah does miss about his old self is when he reigned as the undisputed welterweight champion of the world from 2005 through early 2006. Should he defeat Khan, he’ll retain his IBF belt while adding Khan’s WBA strap. While that’s a significant achievement in any of boxing’s fragmented divisions, Judah views it as another step to what he views as true redemption in becoming of the few to be an undisputed champion in multiple weight classes.
“I don’t know about these guys but I’m a little more old-fashioned with it,” Judah asserted. “I’m gonna be undisputed junior welterweight champion of the world like I was at welterweight. This fight gets me one step closer to my dream. If God is for you who can be against you?”
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Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 