By Eric Thomas: In a bit of bad news, former light welterweight and welterweight champion Zab Judah (36-5, 25 KOs) has reportedly suffered an injury to his right forearm, making it necessary to have 50 stitches applied to the wound, and because of that Judah’s May 31st bout with Shane Mosley (44-5, 37 KOs) has been cancelled for the time being. There’s no word at this time as to when the fight will be rescheduled, but there are already talks undergoing for plans for a future date for the fight to take place.

This is particularly bad news for both fighters, perhaps even more for the 30 year-old Judah, for he’s been going through a rough period in his career having lost three out of his last six fights to opponents Carlos Baldomir, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto. There’s nothing wrong with losing to those kinds of fights, but the fact remains that there’s been little to be happy about in Judah’s career since 2005 when he was the IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion of the world. Since that time, Judah has experienced three losses to the aforementioned fighters, including a non contest with Ruben Galvin in April 2007. In his last two fights, Judah has defeated two little known fighters, Edwin Vazquez and Ryan Davis, both fights interesting to watch but clearly a step down for Judah in terms of career bouts.

At this stage in his career, Judah finds himself in a tough situation where he’s become almost a has been in the welterweight division, which he was arguably never going to be able to compete for long in because of his small size. He’s done well, beating Cory Spinks in 2005 to win the IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion, but since that time he’s seemingly reached the limit of his talent potential in the division. It’s highly doubtful that Judah has the size or the youth to compete against the bigger welterweights or the more powerful ones like Antonio Margarito and Carlos Quintana. Judah has already proven that he can’t beat Mayweather, the WBC welterweight champion and Cotto, the WBA champion.

At this point, Judah can stick around the division and perhaps get another shot or due by virtue of his popular name, but he should really consider moving down a weight class if he ever wants to hold a title again. Then again, Judah perhaps may get lucky and beat a fighter like Quintana, but there are plenty of other fighters in the division that would most assuredly knock him quickly from his perch like Paul Williams, Andre Berto, Joshua Clottey and Mosley.

I can’t see Judah beating anyone of that bunch, other than possibly the still raw Berto. The best possibly solution for him would be for him to move down and challenge one of the light welterweight champions, like Paulie Malignaggi, Ricardo Torres, Junior Witter or Andrea Kotelnik. The best bet would be Witter, who Judah has already beaten once previously in June 2000 by a 12-round unanimous decision. I think sooner or later, Judah will make the move, if only because the realization of his limits will finally dawn on him and he’ll understand that this is the best move for him to stay competitive while he ages.

Mosley is in a similar situation, except that he’s bumping up more against age than anything else. At 36, soon to be 37, Mosley doesn’t have much more time to be relevant in the sport. Already, it’s doubtful that he has the skills to beat any of the welterweight champions. Like Judah, he might be able to squeeze out a decision over Quintana, but then he too would soon be forced to defend his title against one of the younger, larger welterweights like Paul Williams. This would be a very tough bout for Mosley, one that he would have major problems winning.

Though Williams was exposed somewhat by Quintana, I feel that was a match-up that Williams was doomed to have problems against from the very beginning due to Quintana’s movement and counter punching ability. However, in the case of Mosley, he’d be giving up too much size and couldn’t match the punch output of Williams. Mayweather, the WBC welterweight champion, will probably never be interested in fighting Mosley, so that’s not even something that can be considered. Mosley has already lost to Cotto, and I can’t see him being given a rematch anytime soon.

For this reason, he needs to look for the best possible fights against the most popular fighter, whether that is in the welterweight division or the light middleweight division. It would be interesting to see if Mosley could drop down in weight and take on a fighter like Hatton. Being flexible about moving up or down would help Mosley a lot because he doesn’t have time any longer to wait for big fights to come to him.