By Michael Lieberman: Former two division world champion Zab Judah (40-6, 27 KO’s) has seen better days in the past. It’s been perhaps as long as seven years when Judah last looked good and was a truly relevant fighter. Since then, Judah has been mostly just a contender and trail horse for the better fighters to beat up on for title shots. Judah has been beaten by Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Carlos Baldomir in the past five years.

Judah’s wins, other than the controversial victory over Lucas Matthysse, have come against exclusively 2nd tier fighters. And Judah probably should have lost the Matthysse fight. Judah will now be facing South African Kaizer Mabuza (23-6-3, 14 KO’s) on March 5th for the vacant International Boxing Federation light welterweight title at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey.

For Judah supporters, many of them see this fight as sure thing victory for Judah, because many of them aren’t familiar with Mabuza and see the six losses and three draws on his record as an indication that he’s not a very good fighter. However, those fans would be wrong. Mabuza is very good, especially his offensive skills. He likes to throw a lot of punches and overwhelm his opponents with shots. Mabuza has wins over former light welterweight champion Kendall Holt and top prospect Sergiy Fedchenko. Mabuza is good at things that Judah is now struggling with. Mabuza likes to throw a lot of punches, and wear out his opponents. In contrast, Judah is now pretty much a six round fighter incapable of fighting hard beyond that point.

In his gift 12 round decision over Matthysse in November, Judah fought well for one half of the fight and then was forced to run for his left in the last six rounds after tiring out and getting hurt by Matthysse. Mabuza is a much better fighter at putting pressure on his opponents compared to Matthysse and he punches pretty hard as well.

This is a fight that could be a real disaster for Judah. The question is will Judah choose to retire if he takes a beating from Mabuza. You’d have to think that Judah would be forced to retire if he loses this fight because there’s better fighters than Mabuza in the light welterweight division and if Judah can’t beat Mabuza, then he’s wasting his time by fighting on.