News – Khan could be facing Zab Judah next

By Boxing News - 12/16/2009 - Comments

khan45356By William Mackay: World Boxing Association light welterweight champion Amir Khan (22-1, 16 KO’s) could be facing veteran Zab Judah (38-6, 26 KO’s), according to news from The Mirror. Apparently, Khan’s promoter Frank Warren is looking at the 32-year-old Judah as a potential next opponent for Khan in early 2010. Khan also could fight on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight on March 13th.

Previously, Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Marcos Maidana were some of the names thrown around as potential opponents for Khan to fight next. However, it seemed doubtful that Khan, with his weak chin, would be put in with dangerous fighters like Bradley, Marquez and Maidana.

No matter how fast Khan’s hands are and how good of a boxer he is, he’d be in serious danger against the likes of those aforementioned fighters. This is why it came to no surprise to me that Judah’s name was mentioned as an opponent for Khan. Based on Khan’s history of fighting older, some say ‘washed up fighters’, like Marco Antonio Barrera, Michael Gomez and Gairy St. Clair, it seems logical that Khan would continued to be steered towards the old ones.

It’s kind of like taking an old lion, taking his teeth and claws out and then putting in with a young lion who has problems of some sort. Judah would be the perfect opponent for Khan to fight. Let’s see, Judah has lost four out of his last nine bouts and hasn’t beaten a top fighter in the past four years since his stoppage win over Cory Spinks in 2005.

Judah has been beaten by Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey and Carlos Baldomir in the past three years, making him the perfect opponent for Khan. It might not look good Khan facing yet another older fighter, but it sure beats getting knocked out in the 1st round like he was last year when Khan was put in with a live lion with real teeth and claws in the form of Colombian knockout artist Breidis Prescott. Khan has rebounded from that loss with four straight wins over Oisin Fagan, Barrera, Andriy Kotelnik and Dmitriy Salita. Granted, none of those fighters have any real power, but they’re all decent fighters in their own way.

A win over Judah would buy Khan and his handlers some time to figure out what they want to do with him. He’s going to have to fight interim WBA light welteweight champion Marcos Maidana at some point if he plans on holding onto the title. However, taking on Judah, rather than Maidana, would give Khan another payday before he has to face the question of whether to risk all and take Maidana or vacate the title, like many boxing fans and writers think he’s going to do.

Judah may not be as much of an easy fight as some people think. Judah is a good six to eight round fighter and still has good hand speed and power during that part of the fight. However, if you take Judah past the eight round point, he seems to run out of gas entirely and end up losing. Khan would have to stay away from exchanges with Judah until it was late in the fight and safe to throw punches without worry.



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