By Michael Lieberman: 33-year-old Zab Judah (40-6, 27 KO’s) has a tough battle on his hands this Saturday night in his fight against Kaizer Mabuza (23-6-3, 14 KO’s) for the vacant International Boxing Federation light welterweight title at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey. This fight is supposed to be a new beginning for Judah, whose career has been sagging for many years now. However, Mabuza, a high pressure fighter known for causing his opponents to wear down, could be more than what Judah is bargaining for.

Judah just finished winning a controversial decision in his last fight against Lucas Matthysse last year in November. Judah couldn’t handle the little bit of pressure that Matthysse was putting on him in that fight and was forced to flee for the entire second half and parts of the first half to keep from getting knocked out. It wasn’t an inspiring performance from Judah to say the least, and he’s lucky to have won the fight.

Mabuza will no doubt have studied the Judah-Matthysse fight and noted how poorly Judah reacted to the pressure that Matthysse was putting on him all night. Judah said after the Matthysse fight that he was out-weighed by Matthysse, using this as an excuse for why he looked so awful. But it looked like Judah was just the weaker guy, the fighter who couldn’t handle the pressure that Matthysse was putting on him. Matthysse didn’t start pressuring Judah until the 2nd half of the fight.

Mabuza will be applying pressure from the very start of the fight and unless Judah can stand his ground and take Mabuza early, before Judah wears down, he could end up getting ground up to hamburger by Mabuza. This guy is a much better pressure fighter than Matthysse and throws a lot of punches. Judah won’t win this fight by running like last time. Mabuza won’t give away rounds like Matthysse did early in the fight. Judah will have to fight Mabuza off and try and take him out. I doubt he’ll be able to do this because Judah will be fighting backing up too much and won’t be able to get the power needed to stop Mabuza.

Prediction: Look for Mabuza to wear Judah down and stop him by the 8th.