Judah-Mosley: Is Zab Making A Mistake In Taking This Fight?

By Dan Ambrose: Though nothing as of yet has been officially confirmed in terms of signings for the perspective March 31st bout between former WBC/WBA/IBF welterweight champion Zab Judah (36-5, 25 KOs) and former lightweight, welterweight and light middleweight champion Shane Mosley (44-5, 37 KOs), apparently there has been a verbal agreement between the two fighters to meet, according to the latest boxing news.

Both fighters are seemingly at a sticking point in their careers, as neither Mosley or Judah appear to be in the running for a nearby chance at one of the welterweight champions. Of the two, Mosley, 36, appears to have a bit more left in the tank, perhaps good enough to beat International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron or World Boxing Organization champion Paul Williams. Obviously, Cintron would be the easier task, since Williams is thought to be the best of the welterweights at this time, and would be a very tough fight for Mosley given Williams 6′2″ height and long wingspan. Judah, however, is a fighter out of his weight class. He really doesn’t belong in the welterweight division, and perhaps never has. He is small for the division, and should consider moving down to light welterweight where he would no doubt dominate, as he did between 1996-2004.

Judah, however, wants to stay at welterweight, mainly because the money is better in this division. However, Judah hasn’t exactly shined in recent years, losing three out of his last six fights. That’’s not too good, indicating that he either needs to consider moving back down or calling it a career. So far, Judah has remained popular due to his brawling style of fighting. At 30, he still has the speed of a fighter like Floyd Mayweather Jr., but with courage much beyond him, as he’s entirely unafraid to fight any opponent, no matter who it is. That’s precisely the problem for Judah, because he’s taking fights against opponents - Carlos Baldomir, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Miguel Cotto - that are really a bit too large for him.

I suppose it won’t matter if Judah is well paid for the bout, but at this time I’m not certain how much he’ll be getting , as this will be a non-title fight between the two fighters. There is talk of this bout being PPV, and if that’s the case, then, yes, Judah and Mosley will be both paid well for the bout, even if it won’t have a title attached. In their case, it’s almost like an all star bout between two famous fighters that, given their immense popularity between the two of them, they’re more popular than two of the four current welterweight champions.

Mosley, ranked #2 in the WBO, recently lost a close 12-round unanimous decision to WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto on November 10th, 2007. Mosley fought Cotto very competitively, and came close to pulling out a decision of his own. Even in losing, Mosley came off like a champion in that it was he, the older fighter, pursuing Cotto in the later part of the fight. What was odd, though, was that Cotto, who many people thought was near invincible, was running from Mosley, seemingly afraid to mix it up.

Afterwards, Mosley hinted at retirement, but said that he wanted to wait and see what bouts there were for him in the future. Antonio Margarito’s name was mentioned as a potential opponent for Mosley, but that failed to materialize. That would have been a tough fight for Mosley due to Margarito’s size and reach advantage. However, Judah would be a fighter more to Mosley’s liking, considering that Mosley had historically done well against fighters his size or smaller.