Amir Khan makes Zab Judah an unrealistic offer, effectively ducking him

By Boxing News - 05/29/2011 - Comments

Image: Amir Khan makes Zab Judah an unrealistic offer, effectively ducking himBy Mark Young: Amir Khan has tabled a 60-40 split offer to IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah, I have previously written two articles explaining why this fight was not going to happen, putting it down to the fact that Khan doesn’t want this fight. This offer vindicates the sentiment in my earlier articles.

After HBO signed Khan into a 4 fight contract I wrote the article “Amir Khan will not be fighting Zab Judah.” I believed then as I still do that HBO would never risk Khans chin against someone as erratic, powerful and unpredictable as Zab Judah. Don’t get me wrong, I have no doubt Golden Boy and HBO will throw Khan to the lions the minute it makes financial sense, but right now they don’t want their one trick pony to throw a shoe and find themselves saddled with three more contacted fights they can’t sell.

I wrote that “GBP have Khan tied into a 4 fight deal, so he’s not going in with Judah next, it’s not going to happen, and if it does I promise I’ll come on here, take the heat and admit I was wrong but I don’t think I’ll have to.” It wasn’t a crystal ball prediction. It’s obvious, and like I said before I will come on here and make an apology if Khans next opponent is Zab. In fact, I’ll do it if it’s Bradley either.

The offers being made are unrealistic, because they aren’t serious offers. A unification bout with Bradley would be the biggest thing to happen to the division in a long time, Bradley is the guy who would want to be calling the shots, seeing as he brings two belts to Khans one, so offering him a 50-50 split was always going to be a bit optimistic, tied to that wrapping it in a time frame and then offering only $100K more than Bradley would get for a non title fight against a nobody and you can see why Bradley turned his nose up.

As for Zab Judah, he’s been world champion five times, he’s the current IBF champion, he has a resume containing fights against guys like Kostya Tszyu, Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather and is far better known in the USA than Khan is. So why is Judah going to accept an offer which effectively suggests he’s not in the same league as Khan? If Judah were to accept a 60-40 split he would be publicly acknowledging that Khan is a bigger draw, which isn’t going to happen. For even if Khan were somehow superior, no fellow champion is going to sit there like a dog and take scraps from another man’s table. It just doesn’t happen in boxing, the only time guys take poor cuts is when they have no leverage, Zab does have a belt, hence the leverage. Anyone who wants to point out the insignificance of belts, especially the IBF strap, needs to acknowledge that if Khan were to hypothetically win the IBF belt he’d be very likely to parade the thing in an open top limo.

As I said before, Khan will be fighting Erik Morales or Robert Guerrero; it will be totally true to form. Morales is rusty enough and shot enough to give Khan a name without offering too much to worry about, and Guerrero is a blown up former flyweight who has failed to carry up his power to lightweight.



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