By Aaron Klein: After five years away from the light welterweight division, Zab Judah (36-6, 25 KOs) will be making his return to the division on November 9th, against Ernest Johnson (18-2-1, 7 KOs) in a bout on the undercard of Joe Calzaghe vs. Roy Jones Jr. Judah, now 30, left the light welterweight division shortly after defeating Jaime Rangel December 2003 and moved up to the welterweight class. At the time, Judah was the WBO light welterweight champion and considered to be the second best fighter in the division after Kostya Tszyu, whom had stopped Judah in the second round two years earlier in 2001.
Judah, a natural light welterweight, probably should have stayed at light welterweight, even though he was eventually able to capture the WBA/WBC/IBF welterweight title after only four fights in February 2005 with a 9th round stoppage over Cory Spinks. Judah’s lack of size would come back to haunt him, however, as he was beaten by Carlos Baldomir by a 12-round decision in January 2006, losing his WBC welterweight title in the process. From there, it’s been pretty much downhill for Judah, losing his next fight after that against Floyd Mayweather Jr. by another 12-round decision loss in April 2006, and then a 11th round stoppage loss to Miguel Cotto in June 2007. Finally, most recently, Judah was stopped in the 9th round by Joshua Clottey in August. All told, Judah has lost four out of his last seven fights, and taken quite a bit of unnecessary punishment along the way.
No doubt, Judah has been paid well in the fights, in particular his bout with Mayweather Jr., but it may have come at a price, because of all the head shots he was hit with in those fights. At 30, an age that is still young for many fighters, Judah seems like he’s been around for ages, and it’s questionable whether or not he still has enough left in the tank to win a title or two in the light welterweight division. In hindsight, he should have probably never left the division because he easily could have held onto his title all these years without fail if he had stayed.
The best two fighters for the past two years at light welterweight have been Junior Witter, who he already easily defeated in June 2000, and Ricky Hatton. I think Judah would have beaten him just as easily as Mayweather did. However, now I’m not so certain that Judah could still beat him. It’s been a long five years, and Judah has taken a lot of punishment in his losses, and I’m not so certain he could handle what would likely be a very tough fight if he were to get in the ring with Hatton.
Sure, Judah could avoid Hatton altogether and go after Kendal Holt for the WBO title or Andreas Kotelnik, the WBA champion, but somewhere along the line, there would be a cry for Judah to face Hatton or maybe Timothy Bradley, the WBC champion. When that happens, the money would likely be too much for Judah to ignore and he’d be put in the position of having to face what would likely be a very hard fight for him. With as many miles that he has on him, I doubt that he could defeat either of them. The Judah from five years ago, I think, would be too good for Bradley and Hatton, but not anymore.
While he might do well against them for six or so rounds, eventually I see Judah being worn down and taken out like he was against Cotto and Clottey. At the end of the day, Judah probably won’t be able to dominate at the light welterweight division, but if he’s careful, I still think he’s capable of winning the WBA belt from Kotelnik, the WBO belt from Holt or the vacant IBF belt against the likes of Herman Ngoudjo. Holding onto the belt may be a problem, though, because there are talented young fighters out there like Lamont Peterson, Devon Alexander and Victor Ortiz that could give Judah some problems.
I still think Judah is good enough to beat them, but that’s not a given considering how he’s looked in losses to Cotto and Clottey. If he can fight hard beyond the 6th round, something he’s had problems with in the last few years, then I think he could beat almost all of them current top light welterweights, but I think he probably can’t fight hard for a full 12-rounds anymore without fading badly and losing by stoppage or decision.
I’m not sure if it’s a training issue or just age that is causing his problems. I tend to think that it’s more of the latter, because he’s been training long enough to know when he’s in shape or not, and he’d never come into a fight in less than a 100% condition.