LAS VEGAS ? For years, Zab Judah watched Pernell Whitaker. He?d emulate the way Whitaker held his hands, moved his feet, shifted his body to avoid punches.
Everything Whitaker did, Judah did, or he at least tried to do. It was almost as if Judah had become a celebrity impersonator. He was, as best as he could be, Pernell Whitaker.
As good a professional fighter as Zab Judah would become, though, he was no Pernell Whitaker as few men in the history of boxing could do what Whitaker did, winning Olympic gold in 1984 and becoming world champion in four different weight divisions. Judah became a pretty reasonable facsimile of Whitaker as an amateur, and frequently evoked comparisons to the man known as ?Sweet Pea.?
Judah wasn?t, however, the real thing. And despite the success he garnered in his career, winning titles at junior welterweight and welterweight and compiling a 12-6 record in world championship fights, there was something lacking.
As 2011 dawned, the onus was on Judah to do something dramatic. He was 33, coming off a surprisingly close victory over unheralded Lucas Matthysse and was preparing to face Kaizer Mabuza on March 5 in Newark, N.J., for the vacant International Boxing Federation junior lightweight belt.
It was the same title he?d won for the first time in 1999 when he was a fresh-faced 21-year-old with grandiose dreams of conquering boxing and putting himself into the record books alongside Whitaker.
But 12 years later, it was a very different Zab Judah preparing to fight for the IBF belt. He was humbled ? four successive losses in title fights will do that to a guy ? and hungry. He had moved to Las Vegas, where he found religion and dedicated himself to his career like he never had previously.
Yet something was missing. He spent weeks essentially training himself for what was no less than the make-or-break fight of his career. Judah ran himself through the paces to prepare for Mabuza, with no trainer advising him or cajoling him or pushing him when necessary.
Judah had struggled a few months earlier in that title eliminator with Matthysse, causing promoter Kathy Duva and her staff to hold their breath as the verdict was announced.
Judah escaped with a win, which would vault him into the title fight with Mabuza, but no one at Main Events was kidding themselves: They had dodged a bullet, but things weren?t acceptable as they were.
Judah was training with his father, Yoel, like he had for his entire career. But he?d stagnated and seemed to have regressed.
