By Jim Dower: There’s talk of a purse bid taking place at the International boxing Federation headquarters on Thursday for a fight between South African Kaizer Mabuza (23-6-3, 14 KO’s) and former two division world champion Zab Judah (40-6, 27 KO’s) for a bout that would then be taking place in the next month after. I just don’t have a lot of confidence that Judah, now 33, will take this fight. Mabuza, 30, is dangerous, as he not only hits hard but has a very high work rate.

Judah looked very vulnerable in his last fight against Argentinian knockout artist Lucas Matthysse in November, winning the fight by a controversial 12 round split decision in a fight that Judah was knocked down in the 10th. It looked to many people like Judah lost the fight, because he was taking punishment for most of the last six rounds and taking serious damage from Matthysse in the last three.

Judah seems to have followed a pattern of just picking out fights in the last four years of his career and I can’t see him taking this dangerous fight for a title that might not be worth it. This seems like a bad match-up for Judah, because Mabuza is younger, and has a way of attacking his opponents and beating them with pressure.

Mabuza has beaten two very good fighters in the past year in victories over Kendall Holt and Serhiy Fedchenko. Those are quality guys, and Mabuza was all over them and looked very impressive. Holt couldn’t keep up with the pace that Mabuza set and was retired in the 6th. I don’t see Judah as being able to beat this guy, and that makes me think he won’t even take the fight.