Khan-Judah: Khan lacks the power to beat Judah

By Boxing News - 06/04/2011 - Comments

Image: Khan-Judah: Khan lacks the power to beat JudahBy William Mackay: There are certain types of fighters that IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah (41-6, 28 KO’s) is troubled by but WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (25-1, 17 KO’s) isn’t one of them. The two fighters will square off on July 23 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan has defended his World Boxing Association title four titles since capturing it in 2009 with a win over Andriy Kotelnik.

For his part, Judah recently won the vacant IBF title with a 7th round TKO victory over contender Kaizer Mabuza last March. Judah showed big power in that fight in hurting Mabuza with a huge left uppercut to the head and then finishing him off with a flurry.

In the past, Judah has had problems against big punchers like Kostya Tszyu and Miguel Cotto. Judah has always done well against fighters with average power like Khan. Judah’s problems come when he’s put in against bigger fighters with more power than him. Khan, 5’10”, may have a 2 1/2″ height advantage in this fight but that doesn’t translate to Khan having the bigger power. Despite his size and his relatively high knockout percentage on his record, Khan is more of a slapper than a puncher.

Khan usually gets his mostly over-matched opponents out of there by unloading flurries on them. He typically doesn’t have to worry about the power of his opponents because most of his match-ups have come against weaker punchers. Khan has only been in with two fighters his entire career with power and that was against Breidis Prescott and Marcos Maidana. Prescott knocked Khan out in the 1st round in 2008, and Maidana had Khan badly hurt in the last three rounds of the fight in 2010.

Khan struggles against fighters with power and fights completely different than he does when put in with fighters with feather fists. Judah only has to wait to land one of his big uppercuts in between one of Khan’s weak flurries in order to take him out of there. This is why I give Judah an excellent chance of beating Khan on July 23 and sending him back to the contender ranks.



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