By Jason Kim: Despite what some boxing fans are saying about Zab Judah (41-6, 28 KO’s) looking good in stopping Kaizer Mabuza (23-7-3, 14 KO’s) in the 7th round on Saturday night to win the vacant IBF light welterweight title, Judah looked far from good in the fight – at least on offense. Judah looked to be trailing in the fight in the 7th after getting dropped in the 4th and staggered by a right hand in the 6th. Judah came back to stop Mabuza after hurting him with a straight left hand in the 7th, and then overwhelming him with punches after the action resumed.

Judah got the win but he looked anything but impressive in the fight. If you take away the 7th round and look at what Judah did in the first six, he looked like he was on his way to getting beaten. The problem that Judah had was that he wasn’t throwing shots and was just looking to duck and dodge shots. You could see that Judah was putting a great deal of effort into mimicking Pernell Whitaker’s old style of fighting.

Whitaker, a defensive artist, is Judah’s new trainer. While it’s good that Whitaker has taught Judah some things in terms of helping him avoid getting hit in the head as much, the fact remains that Judah was still just as vulnerable as always to body shots. And his chin was just as weak as it always was, as we saw when he was staggered by Mabuza. Now some boxing fans may be excited about Judah’s win over Mabuza but I’m not.

I can’t see Judah beating Lucas Matthysse, who Judah got a gift decision over in his last fight. It wouldn’t matter if Whitaker trained Judah for the rematch. Matthysse would give Judah huge problems because he wouldn’t get hurt like Mabuza and would out-work Judah badly like he did last time and like Mabuza was doing tonight.

Judah just doesn’t throw enough punches anymore because it looks like he stamina issues and is afraid to fade like he often does when he fights hard for four or five rounds. Judah would have lost to Matthysse, Marcos Maidana and probably Timothy Bradley tonight. I think Judah would have a good chance of beating Amir Khan, but that’s only because Khan’s chin is weak and he still has a lot of questions to answer about his ability to take a hard shot.