By Jim Dower: Fighting for the first time in three years, former two division world champion Zab “Super” Judah (43-9, 30 KOs) totally obliterated an over-matched journeyman Jorge Luis Munguia (12-8, 4 KOs) by a 2nd round TKO on Saturday night at the Sun National Bank Center arena in Trenton, New Jersey.
The 39-year-old Judah peppered Munguia with power shots in the 2nd round in switching angles from his shots repeatedly until dropping him with a left to the head. Munguia fell down on his backside, and the fight was then halted.
The official time of the stoppage was 1:27 of round 2. Judah was hitting Munguia combinations from the 1st round, and him hurt and ready to be knocked out. Judah didn’t pour it on though, and he let the fighter from Honduras off the book. In round 2, Judah nailed Munguia at will with shots while moving to avoid his shots return shots. Eventually it was too much for Munguia, who went down from a hard left to the head.
Munguia didn’t have the fire power, hand speed or the talent to keep Judah in check in this fight. Judah looked like he was on another level talent wise. Munguia is a professional fighter, but he doesn’t have the pedigree that Judah had at one time in his career. When Judah was younger and fire on all eight-cylinders, he was very good.
A lot of the boxing fans in this day and age never got a chance to see what Judah was like back in the last 1990s and early 2000s. Judah was incredibly good. It wasn’t until Judah met up with Kostya Tszyu that he suffered his first defeat. Judah moved up in weight three years after that and challenged for a world title at welterweight, and lost to Cory Spinks.
Judah would later stop Spinks in 2005 to win the IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight titles in winning a 9th round TKO. Judah held onto those titles for three years until losing to a prime Carlos Baldomir by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2006. At that point, Judah’s career started to head downhill with him losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his next fight in 2006, and then losing to Miguel Cotto by an 11th round TKO in 2007, and then Joshua Clottey in 2008. In hindsight, Judah should have moved back down to 140 after his loss to Baldomir in 2006. Of course, with the money Judah made against Mayweather and Cotto, he wasn’t about to go back down to light welterweight for the smaller paydays. But if he did go back in weight, Judah would have almost surely recaptured world titles at 140 and held onto those titles for a number of years.
It’s surprising how good Judah looked in the fight. Compared to the last time he fought against Paulie Malignaggi in 2013, Judah looked like a completely different fighter against the 28-year-old Munguia. Judah’s fight against Malignaggi was a strange one. Judah dropped Malignaggi early in the fight in the 2nd round, and appeared to be on his way to an easy win. However, after round 2, Judah stopped throwing punches completely and just stood and looked frozen like he was paralyzed. It was a very strange fight. Judah went from making Malignaggi look bad in the first two rounds to a fighter who couldn’t throw any punches for the last 10 rounds. Tonight, Judah looked like the fighter that dominated Malignaggi in the first two rounds. Judah was hitting Munguia with everything he threw, and not missing anything at all. It was impressive stuff from the 39-year-old Judah. If Judah could fight like this all the time, he might be a threat to champions like Ricky Burns and Julius Indongo. Judah wouldn’t likely stand a chance against WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford though. He’s way too good for an aging, ring rusty fighter like Judah.
It’s unclear what Judah’s plans are for his next fight. Tonight’s fight took place at welterweight, but I think Judah is going to be fighting in the 140lb division rather than at welterweight. Judah doesn’t have the size or the power to be mixing it up with top welterweights like Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Kell Brook, Errol Spence Jr. or Manny Pacquiao. Judah would obviously take a fight against Pacquiao in a second if it were offered to him, because the money would be so good. But there’s little chance of Pacquiao burning up one of his last remaining fights against the soon to be 40-year-old Judah.
The only division that makes sense for Judah to be fighting at is the light welterweight division. His management are going to need to move him along at a fast pace if they want him to pick up a top 15 ranking so that he can get a title shot against one of the champions in the 140lb division. With the way that Judah fought tonight, a lot of boxing fans would like to see him fight for a world title. I don’t think it would be a great idea for Judah to fight Crawford, but the flawed Burns or Indongo would be perfect for Judah. Neither of those guys looks particularly good right now, and Judah would have a chance of beating both if he fought like he did tonight against Munguia.
In other results on the card, super middleweight Derrick Webster (21-1, 11 KOs) defeated Thomas Awimbono (25-6-1, 21 KOs) by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision. The victory game Webster the vacant USBO super middleweight title. The final judges’ scores were 100-90, 98-92, and 98-92.