Judah denies knocking out Mayweather in sparring

By Boxing News - 03/25/2015 - Comments

judah2By Chris Williams: For the past week there’s been a nasty rumor floating around about how former two division world champion Zab “Super” Judah (42-9, 29 KOs) supposedly knocked WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) out in a sparring session.

Mayweather hired the 37-year-old southpaw to get him ready for southpaw Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Judah finally addressed the rumors on Tuesday, saying on his twitter that they are totally false, and that he wants boxing fans to stop floating the rumor.

“@maven_boxing: @SUPERJUDAH any comment on the KO you delivered to @Floyd Mayweather recently?” (That’s Not True it never happen stop it).”

There it is. Judah denying that he knocked Mayweather out during one of their sparring sessions. This will be good enough to clear the rumor up with some boxing fans, but you expect others to carry on believing the rumor to be true despite Judah denying it.

Even if Judah had knocked Mayweather out during a sparring session, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to help Pacquiao out on May 2nd. These are two different fighters under completely circumstances. Fighting without padded gloves and head gear in front of millions of fans is a much different situation than sparring in front of a group of maybe 10 people in Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It’s going to be a completely different Mayweather when he gets inside the ring against Pacquiao on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather is a showman, and he’s going to be looking to put on a show in front of the millions of fans watching the fight.

It’s going to be a real tough situation for Pacquiao, because he’s not had the preparation that you’d like to have for a fight against Mayweather. Pacquiao’s last tough fight was three years ago against Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012. Since that loss in which Pacquiao was knocked clean out by Marquez in the 6th, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has backed him off from facing what I feel are the best welterweights in the division. Since then, Arum has put Pacquiao in with Brandon Rios, Chris Algieri and Tim Bradley.

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Rios, a former lightweight, ate his way to welterweight, and he has no hand speed or defense to speak of. Algieri is a light welterweight with no punching power. Bradley is a pumped up light welterweight with little in the way of power.

Pacquiao basically has fought three straight light welterweights since his loss to Marquez in 2012. Now Pacquiao is being asked to beat the best welterweight in the division in Mayweather despite not having faced a legitimate welterweight in the last five years since his fight against Antonio Margarito in 2010. Juan Manuel Marquez was a pumped up featherweight. He wasn’t a legit welterweight either.

Pacquiao is going to have problems with Mayweather’s speed, mobility, and especially his counter punching. If Pacquiao chooses to fight Mayweather with his normal aggressive style of fighting, it’s going to lead to him getting picked apart by Mayweather. That’s the wrong style to fight against Mayweather. It might be the right style for Pacquiao to beat the likes of Algieri, Rios, Bradley, Margarito, Shane Mosley and Miguel Cotto, but it’s not a good style to use against Mayweather.



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