NEW YORK — Last month, Zab Judah walked into the press center at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. It was fight week for Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, but Judah worked the room like everyone was there for him. He ran through a series of interviews and posed for pictures, grinning and goofing with a roomful of reporters along the way. It was a far cry from the scene just a few days earlier, when Judah, at a press conference to promote his February 9th junior welterweight title fight with Danny Garcia, was a primary participant in an ugly melee.
In a way, it was fitting because when Judah is in the ring, you don’t know what you are going to get, either. At his best Judah is fast on his feet with blurring hand speed and deceptive power. In 2005, Judah went to Cory Spinks’ backyard in St. Louis and knocked out Spinks to become the undisputed welterweight champion. Just last March, Judah mopped the floor with undefeated Vernon Paris, knocking out the top prospect in the ninth round.
At his worst, though, Judah is tough to figure out. Last summer, Judah was spanked by Amir Khan over five lopsided rounds that ended when Khan put him down with a body shot. In a loss to Floyd Mayweather in 2006, Judah’s repeated low blows incited a riot in the ring. Judah has won plenty of big fights but most of the biggest ones — against Mayweather, against Miguel Cotto, against Kostya Tszyu — he has lost.
When Garcia’s father, Angel, who doubles as his trainer and has a history of antagonizing opponents at press events, brought up Judah’s past failures, Judah lost it.
“It wasn’t one particular thing that he said, it was the variety of what he said,” Judah told SI.com. “It was ‘He’s a bum. He’s nothing.’ Man, I’ve won five world titles in three different weight classes? What has your son done? I’ve lost more than he is ever going to gain. He says he is this epic knockout puncher? I have more knockouts than he has fights. It was almost a situation where I felt I was being overlooked, that everything I have done and worked hard for and get to this level meant nothing to them.”
Indeed, when Judah challenges Garcia on February 9th, it will be Garcia’s show. After being built up by HBO, Showtime has picked up Garcia and tabbed him as the network’s next star. The 35-year-old Judah is being used for his name, for his hometown — Brooklyn, which is where the fight will take place, at the Barclays Center — and for his ability to generate ratings.
“It’s a great marketing strategy for a network because he is a young guy who can fight for another ten years, which I can’t and won’t do,” Judah said. “I know I probably have another two or three years, maybe, and that’s it. But this guy is not the one. Everyone, HBO, Showtime, this is not the one. He is not the one.”
Despite Garcia’s meteoric rise, Judah sees flaws. He sees a fighter that relies on the mistakes of his opponents to win. He sees a fighter that was getting picked apart by Amir Khan before Khan, foolishly, walked into a big shot.
“Khan was hitting him so easy that he said ‘I’m going to knock him out,'” Judah said. “Khan was premature jumping into that kind of brawl. You have to know what you are doing. I’ve been in there with Cotto. I know how to handle big punchers. I know how to slip em and dip ’em. When you are talking about speed and accuracy, there is no one faster than Floyd, and we went twelve rounds. Think Danny could go twelve rounds with Floyd? I know he can’t.”
Judah said he made mistakes in his fight with Khan, mistakes that won’t happen again. Hall of Fame fighter Pernell Whitaker trained him for that fight, and Judah feels Whitaker’s strategy took away some of his strengths.
“I love Pernell, he is one of my idols,” Judah said. “But I went into the Khan fight trying to do something that wasn’t me. When the bell rang, I went backwards. And if you know me, I don’t do that. All of my first rounds are insane. Cotto, Mayweather. They are epic.” Judah reunited with his father and longtime trainer, Yoel, for the Paris fight and that, Judah says, “was the Zab Judah you should expect to see.”
“I’m going to punish Danny Garcia for twelve rounds,” Judah said. “Every second, he is going to know he is in the ring with Zab Judah. These young guys, they are good. But these young guys haven’t seen a good seasoned veteran. Garcia’s father is talking about how this isn’t my time, how I had my chance. This is my time. This is my generation.”
