For fans new to boxing, Zab Judah is the equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster.
You hear about him enough to believe he could exist. In fact, it sounds so interesting at times that you want him to exist.
Zab is one of the fastest fighters in boxing over the last decade. Incredible power in both hands. Enough charisma to fill an entire division.
But the Zab they talk about only surfaces ever so often and only for a short time. He sticks his head out, does something to keep the chatter going, then disappears into hiding again.
Zab Judah. The head case who put hands on a referee for stopping one of his fights. The speed demon who put Floyd Mayweather Jr. cleanly on the canvas (a glove, at least). The klutz who had to cancel a fight after slipping and crashing through the glass of his shower.
Could all these people really be the same guy?
Until Friday night, the last truly sensational performance by Judah came against Cosme Rivera on the undercard of an HBO pay-per-view in May of 2005. Back then, he was the undisputed welterweight champion and coming off the best win of his career – a knockout of Cory Spinks.
Life was good. And so Zab was having fun in boxing.
Though he faced very different circumstances coming into his must-win Friday Night Fights bout against Jose Armando Santa Cruz, Judah’s demeanor mirrored the way he carried himself before suffering back-to-back losses in 2006. Another would follow in 2007 and yet another in 2008. In the dressing room before the fight, he was all smiles as he worked out before his son Zab Jr.
And maybe that’s the reason for the change in attitude. For as long as anyone can remember, the biggest criticism of Judah was that, while he was undoubtedly one of the most talented individuals in the fight game, he lacked the focus to fight a complete fight. In other words, Zab lacked maturity.
With his seventeen-month old son in the arena, Judah fought like an adult for the first time in a long time. And perhaps even more so than he did during his three-round destruction of Rivera.
Because unlike Rivera, Santa Cruz had made some waves in boxing, dominating then-lightweight champion Joel Casamayor in 2007 before being robbed blindly by the judges. It was a far cry from Judah’s previous opponent, Ubaldo Hernandez, who couldn’t even stand up to Zab’s jabs to his body. Thus, the fight against Santa Cruz was to serve as a barometer of Judah’s relevancy in 2010.
And after a scintillating performance, it’s safe to say Judah, now fighting in the loaded junior welterweight division, is still a name worth mentioning as a possible opponent for the likes of Tim Bradley, Devon Alexander, Amir Khan, Marcos Maidana or Victor Ortiz.
Branded a frontrunner by even the softest of critics, Zab surprisingly spent the first two rounds pacing himself, mixing offense with defense and scoring the points he needed early should the going get tough later. And when Santa Cruz tried to turn it into more of a brawl, Judah was ready for that too, catching him with a vicious left uppercut – the same one he used to dispatch Rivera five years ago.
Santa Cruz never recovered, getting up but on visibly unsteady legs. He ate a left hand and a few follow up right hooks before Referee Benjy Esteves had seen enough and saved Santa Cruz from further punishment.
Three rounds for Rivera. Three rounds for Santa Cruz.
So now comes the real test for Judah, whose victory will probably land him across the ring from one of the aforementioned 140-pounders. Zab has shown through against less talented fighters but also has a track record of failing to follow up with a good performance when on the big stage.
At 32 years of age, he still has his uncanny speed and the power that comes with it. If the focus has finally followed suit, Judah can be a player in boxing’s best division.
Zab is truly one of those fighters where just about any outcome is foreseeable. The question is whether he’ll step out of the water for good on this, his last hurrah, and show his true self.
