Judah: I’m going to knock Malignaggi out

By Boxing News - 12/05/2013 - Comments

judah33By Dan Ambrose: Zab Judah (42-8, 29 KO’s) and Paulie Malignaggi (32-5, 7 KO’s) have been playing it nice with one another in the build up to their fight for weeks, but now they’re finally ready to battle it out on Saturday night at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Judah says he’s going to KO Malignaggi and finish his career as an active fighter. Judah wants to send Malignaggi back to Showtime where he works as a boxing analyst.

Judah said “These are the old Roman days. Only thing different is I can’t behead him, so I’m going to knock him out. After this, he’s going to be a full-time announcer.”

As brutal as that may sound, Judah be right. A loss for Malignaggi here would be his second straight defeat and it would pretty much signal the end of his career. Even if Malignaggi wanted to continue fighting at this, where would he go? Malignaggi wouldn’t be getting a rematch against Adrien Broner that’s for sure, and he definitely wouldn’t be getting a crack against Floyd Mayweather Jr. A loss for Malignaggi would mean that he’d have to hang around and and try and fight his way back to title contention. Would he do that? Probably not. Malignaggi could probably still get a fight against 42-year-old Shane Mosley, but who would want to watch that?

Judah’s in the same boat as Malignaggi. A loss for him would be his second straight defeat, and a clear sign that it’s for him. The one thing that Judah has in his favor is that he fights at 140, so if he gets beaten by the welterweight Malignaggi, he would still have the option to staying at 140 and looking to fight IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson in an optional title defense. The 140 lb. division is hurting for recognizable contenders, so Judah would still remain an option at that weight for a little while at least.

Judah has the speed and the power to win this fight on Saturday if he fights aggressively and doesn’t just hang back looking to peck Malignaggi off with power shots. That kind of fighting style favors Malignaggi because he wants the fight to be a slow one where he can jab and limit the offensive production of Judah.



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