By Jim Dower: Former two division world champion Zab Judah (40-6. 27 KO’s) has a tough decision to make for his next fight in 2011. Judah, 33, recently moved down from the welterweight division to the light welterweight division where he had hoped to be able to immediately make an impact and hopefully win a title or two. Instead, Judah ended almost getting beaten by Argentinian knockout artist Lucas Martin Matthysse in winning a controversial 12 round split decision over him on November 6th.
Many boxing fans who saw the fight felt that Judah was given a gift decision over the visiting Matthysse. But whether you agree with the decision or not, you can’t disagree that Judah badly struggled with Matthysse, and didn’t show the kinds of ability that would suggest that Judah has the talent to beat the best fighters in the light welterweight division like Marcos Maidana, Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, Victor Ortiz and Amir Khan. Judah was knocked down in the 10th round by Matthysse and spent the 11th and 12th mostly running. Judah was running from the 6th round on, and is quite fortunate to have won the fight.
The decision for Judah now is whether to move forward and try to capture the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) light welterweight title against the tough South African Kaizer Mabuza in a fight that could wind up taking place in South African if his promoter wins the purse bid for the fight. Or Judah can forget about that fight and hope and pray that the winner of the Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana or the Victor Ortiz vs. Lamont Peterson fights will want to turn around and fight him next. The chances of Judah getting the Khan-Maidana winner is very low to the point where it’s not even worth mentioning.
Judah could get a shot against the Ortiz-Peterson winner, but that could be an even tougher fight for Judah than the Mabuza fight, because Ortiz appears to be a bigger puncher than Mabuza and has better hand speed. Judah might be better off facing the little known Mubuza with the IBF title being on the line rather than facing a younger and bigger puncher in Ortiz. Either way, Judah looks to be not in a good position because Mabuza is a very dangerous fighter and Ortiz has got all that speed and power going for him. If a fighter like Matthysse was able to put Judah down, then Mabuza and Ortiz are likely to be able to do the same thing.
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