Zab Judah Training Camp Notes
“I’m from Brooklyn. I don’t have a problem taking the long, hard, grinding road. I wasn’t the golden boy. I wasn’t the guy…”
On Saturday, July 23, IBF champion Zab Judah (41-6, 28 KOs) meets WBA champion Amir Khan (25-1, 17 KOs) in a junior welterweight unification bout at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Khan is the young gun going up against the old pro, and the bookies give Khan the edge going in. But in boxing no one knows what’s happening until it’s happening, and sometimes not even then, and Judah plans to walk away with the W.
“When I went in against Matthysse,” said Judah, referring to his upset victory over the Argentine slugger against in 2010, “me and my team knew that I was going to beat him. Golden Boy thought I was going to be a steppingstone, so they sacrificed one of their pawns. Now they’re going to come back and sacrifice one of their queens. It’s checkmate baby, you know it is!”
Judah lives in Vegas these days, and he’s probably happy to miss New York’s winters. You can take the man out of Brooklyn, but you can’t take Brooklyn out of the man, especially if he has something to say.
“I’m from Brooklyn,” Judah said with a touch of pride. “I don’t have a problem taking the long, hard, grinding road. I wasn’t the golden boy. I wasn’t the guy always in the light, the guy always first picked, but somehow I made my way back to the top.”
Zab is definitely back on top, and if it’s up to him, he’s going to stay there.
“I plan to be his (Amir Khan’s) worst nightmare,” continued Judah. “After this fight I plan on Team Khan having a 62-hour watch on Amir Khan. I plan on being the Freddie Cougar of his dreams. I plan on being Freddie Cougar to Freddie Roach. I’m pretty sure after this fight Freddie Roach would never put his Golden Boy and marquee fighter, which is Manny Pacquiao, against me in the ring.”
What Freddie Roach does and doesn’t do many depend less on Judah and more on Manny Pacquiao.
Judah said he’s grown a lot during the past five years: “It’s not just about age, it’s maturity. It took me a little more time to figure things out. Now I am alive and alert and I have the great Pernell Whitaker in my corner. Having him in my corner exempts the whole Freddie Roach thing. Now I have not only a masterful trainer, but I have a masterful fighter too. Freddie Roach has a great game plan when it comes to boxing training, but as a fighter he wasn’t that masterful. I have not only a masterful fighter but a great teacher, so I have the edge.”
Judah is right about Freddie Roach. He’s a brilliant trainer, one of the all-time greats. But Freddie was a so-so fighter. He always gave it his all, but was no stranger to defeat, and Sweet Pea would have danced circles around him.
“Pernell Whitaker and Zab Judah is something like a movie. We started out together when he was still fighting and it turned out to be a great thing. We are now working side by side with each other. He’s my right-hand man! He’s pouring on all the great skills and accomplishments that he’s done in his boxing career. It’s phenomenal. He’s good at what he does.”
Judah knows that his fight with Khan won’t be a cakewalk. Khan, like Judah, was written off after he was KO’d in 2008. But also like Judah, Khan fought his way back into contention and is now a champion, and that single loss looks like an aberration, the result of a proverbial bad night.
“I think Amir Khan is a good boxer,” Judah said “He has fast hands, decent power, but I think it’s a sacrifice move what Golden Boy did here with Amir Kahn, and I think he (Khan) will realize this once the bell rings.
“July 23rd is about this: what can you bring as far as your skills; what can you bring as far as far your brains; what can you bring as far as your knowledge of boxing; what can you do inside that square ring; what do you do when you look across that ring and there’s a hungry lion named Zab ‘Super’ Judah looking you dead in the eye, anxious for the bell to go bing? You either fold or you play cards. I’m going to play to win.”
