{"id":5498,"date":"2010-11-14T08:44:38","date_gmt":"2010-11-14T13:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=5498"},"modified":"2010-11-14T08:44:38","modified_gmt":"2010-11-14T13:44:38","slug":"zab-judah-targeting-timothy-bradley-amir-khan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=5498","title":{"rendered":"Zab Judah: Targeting Timothy Bradley & Amir Khan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Gina L. Caliboso<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his most recent outing, Zab \u201cSuper\u201d Judah, 40-6, 27 KO\u2019s, made his second fight debut of the year by going up against Argentine fighter, Lucas Martin Matthysse.<\/p>\n

With color commentary provided at the opening of the bout by Roy Jones, JR., he stated honestly that Judah \u201cgot rid of the bling and now dedicated himself to God.\u201d As Judah demonstrated in the split decision victory, he\u2019s back, he\u2019s focused, but yes, I\u2019ll be the first to say, he\u2019s still got a lot of work to do.<\/p>\n

The bout was for the WBO \u2013 NABO Light Welterweight title. There were a couple of things that proved Judah is still in championship form, but the victory was also accompanied by some improvements he must make. <\/p>\n

Should Judah return and stay in the light welterweight division, he is not without competitive company. In fact, Judah does have the focus. But still, he cannot take the division lightly. Here are some areas of improvements and potential matchups for Judah to consider on his somewhat long road back to championship form.<\/p>\n

Against Matthysse, Judah showed that he needs to put the fight away early. He had a commanding lead through the first 6 round. He needed to establish that he was the more experienced fighter, taking chances, and putting together combinations as a southpaw can make an orthodox fighter look awkward. His corner wasn\u2019t exactly worried and from the opening round, Judah did what he was supposed to, including measuring his lesser known opponent in order to find his range. But in doing so, Judah started to take his winning rounds for granted.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Judah\u2019s corner perhaps did one thing. They underestimated the strength and brawling ability of Matthysse.<\/p>\n

As the fight continued, Judah started to look a little weary. Matthysse continued to press forward, took a few hits from Judah, and from rounds 7 and on, Lederman even started to give a round or two to Matthysse. The lesser known Matthysse continued to fight and he didn\u2019t back down once. Matthysse reminded me of another fighter \u2013 Edwin Valero.<\/p>\n

Matthysse went forward, took some risks to get Judah to exchange. And then I saw his record, 25 KO\u2019s out of 27 fights. He had been undefeated prior to his bout to Judah. Even as much as I look critically at a fighter\u2019s undefeated record, it\u2019s still something not to be taken lightly. I think Judah and his corner really did underestimate that their champion just might have fight on his hands.<\/p>\n

Finally, it happened, Judah went down in the 10th round, and suddenly, the fight is a fight and Judah had to take the fight and convince the judges. Finally, as the 12th round ended and the split decision determined the fight to go to Judah, I\u2019m sure that he wasn\u2019t the only one sweating. The score cards read were as follows: Joseph Pasquale 113-114; Hilton Whitaker 113-114; and Waleska Roldan 114-113. Yes, a victory is a victory. But to at the top of the division, there is no room for a point in a split decision.<\/p>\n

Judah needed to take the fight and let the judges know he is in it to win it.<\/p>\n

Among light welterweights, Judah is currently ranked 19th. As I previously mentioned, he\u2019s got a little more fighting to do. Judah must continue to focus. As a former champion and as long as he remains focused, the boxers in the upper ranks might consider giving themselves and Judah the opportunity for a matchup for a title belt.
\nI\u2019ll start with two of the division\u2019s best fighters.<\/p>\n

Both Timothy \u201cDesert Storm\u201d Bradley, 26-0, 11 KO\u2019s and Devon Alexander, 21-0, 13 KO\u2019s are set to fight one another in January 2011. Alexander is the current IBF and WBC Light Welterweight titleholder. Bradley is the current titleholder for the WBO Light Welterweight belt. Should Bradley win the bout, the WBC belt will then become vacant. Since it rarely happens, it\u2019s really great to see that two titleholders within the division fight one another.<\/p>\n

Even more at stake, both Bradley and Alexander have undefeated records. I give credit for each fighter putting their records and title belts on the line to give one another the competitive and prestigious occasion to put it all at risk and become the somewhat undisputed champion of the division.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Amir Khan, 23-1, 17 KO\u2019s, currently ranked #2 in the division, will face the 4th ranked Marcos Rene Maidana, 29-1, 27 KO\u2019s for the WBA World Light Welterweight division in December. So, we can only guess that depending on the winners of these two key matches, Judah may have some people to fight in the future.<\/p>\n

So, for Judah, ranked #19, he has a lot of fighting to in order to work his way back up. He is, as Jones JR pointed out, focused, but again, he needs to continue to be focused and take all his bouts seriously. Until he gets the nod from the current titleholders of the light welterweight belts, he\u2019ll continue on, and can only do so with a clear and focused path towards the top of the ranks. Judah is on solid footing now. He\u2019s concentrating on boxing. And the only thing he should really focus on now is his next fight. There is no room for him to take advantage of his past greatness.<\/p>\n

Judah must take his time and create his opportunity for redemption and rebirth. Let\u2019s just hope he\u2019ll stay strong enough within the division and stick around for a while. As the top four champions of the division fight one another, there will be two winners and two losers.<\/p>\n

And, for Judah, there will be no shortage of competition to fight now and in the future.<\/p>\n

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By Gina L. Caliboso In his most recent outing, Zab \u201cSuper\u201d Judah, 40-6, 27 KO\u2019s, made his second fight debut of the year by going up against Argentine fighter, Lucas Martin Matthysse. With color commentary provided at the opening of the bout by Roy Jones, JR., he stated honestly that Judah \u201cgot rid of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[52,105,781],"class_list":["post-5498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-amir-kahn","tag-boxing","tag-zab-judah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5498"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}