How Impressed Where You With Khan's Performance Against Judah

Well the hardest hitter at 140 (arguably) Matthysse sure as hell couldn't, and was outboxed for long parts of his fight with Judah. I think he's in the top 5. I would also favour Judah over Peterson and probably Alexander.

 

There were some things I liked about how Khan looked against Judah. He seemed less robotic and more fluid and comfortable. He seemed to add a bit to his game as he was shortening up some punches. He is largely one-dimensional as he's only really effective from long range, so it is encouraging that he threw some punches at closer range.

Khan is better than I thought, but I'm not going to get overly excited about the win. It is, after all, Zab Judah, a career underachiever who is also quite a ways past his best. In most of his recent fights, even in victory, I don't think he's looked all too impressive.

Khan still has quite a ways to go, but he is talented, still improving, and seems to have a lot of desire & ambition. Those are good signs.

I don't expect nearly as much out of Khan as others do, but he may end up doing better than I originally expected him to do (being a decent champ/titlist).

 

I rewatched the fight today and saw something that made me rethink the "low blow" issue...

When the fighters met at the middle of the ring before the fight started the ref gave the final instructions which including indicating where what would be considered low, and he put his hand on the top of both fighters trunks. That being the case, Khan's shot on Zab was indeed low.

Thoughts?

 

True, and this is why my expectations of Khan were/are so much lower than that of many others. He's a talented athlete, but many boxers are fast and athletic. Some fighters just pick up on boxing techniques and skills quickly, while others just don't. Jermain Taylor was a rather fast guy who was athletic, being a track star in high school or something like that, but couldn't put together the right boxing skills at the highest level. Like Khan, he was an Olympic medalist.

I think with Khan it may also be a mental thing when he has a fight. It's like he's too excited and wound up that he often throws shots with little thought or balance. He throws that right hand and often is already off balance, leaping towards his opponent. Does he have this poor balance and technique in the gym too? Or is he just too excited in there?

Either way, like you said, these flaws need to be fixed.

 

I am a doubter:

With that said you can not pin anything that happend against Khan, sure there are factors, Judah has lost every major fight he has been in no doubt.
But Khan got done what he was supposed to, from the outset he had an answer for each and everything Judah had to offer, Obviously Roach disected that style and had the perfect game plan for Khan.
there is nothing you can say about Khan at this point still sort of un tested but is proving that you better take him serious if you plan on fighting him.
Khan has time thats a good thing, will he make it to the same level as Pac, I dont think so those types of fighters as Roach would say are once in a life time fighters but he will be a solid champ and be in the HOF when his career is finished.

 

I was very impressed actually.

Here is the thing...he did what he was supposed to to seperate himself from the lower ranked fighters...he dominated one of the best of them.

He showed very good improvement, he protected himself well from bombs especialy the uppercut and he showed his usual speed and combo punching.

Yes he has flaws but he still is working to become an ELITE.

He still has miles and miles to go before even mentioning a fight witht he likes of Floyd or Pac....these two are a whole other level in terms of boxing....its no longer physical at these guys level...its more mental....he is not there yet.

 

It was indeed below where the ref said was the cut-off point. It's why commissions need to enforce these rules better when it comes to fighters wearing trunks and cups too damn high.

But I think Zab was just discouraged, exaggerating the effect, and looking for a way out. It was a borderline shot, and then Zab claims he was hit in his balls.

 

Not bad. I'd say it was about a 7/10.

He wasn't landing much, but he was outworking Judah. He did seem to cut down on his usual habit of overreaching and lunging, which is a plus -- there were points where Judah cocked his rear hand, and you could see he wanted to throw that counter, but Khan wisely backed off and didn't give him his chance. Khan kept the fight at a good distance, and made sure to use his jab and keep Judah off balance. He didn't really get hit much, but if I remember right, he was often circling to the right, which could have exposed him to Judah's power hand, so I'm not sure why he was doing that. When Maidana hurt him in the tenth he was also circling towards Maidana's power hand, so it's clearly becoming a problem with him.

That being said, I liked the fact that he was actually punching a little when in the pocket, which usually isn't Khan's style at all. He hit Judah with some decent body shots at one point, and while the final shot was borderline, I would have allowed it, as it was on the belt rather than below it. Unfortunately, all the controversy has hidden the fact that Khan technically got a bodyshot KO, which might be the first of his career. (As far as I can remember, could be wrong.) Maybe he's been working on infighting since the Maidana scare?

Not a great performance (too much missing, like with McCloskey) but a good job against a talented but faded fighter.

 

Yeah apparently he was doing that because Judah also circles the wrong way (for a southpaw). Roach brought it up I think, and Lampley mentioned it during the HBO commentary, it was definitely part of the plan and not a mistake on Khan's part this time.

 

Honestly I thought the performance was flawless, sure Judah has been on a decline but against a young green champion like Khan you would have expected him to be able to do more in the fight than he was able to I mean Judah got off to a great start with Cotto and Mayweather and sure that was years back but still....

I didnt see Khan missing that much, he placed his shots well using throw away shots to set up the meaningful shots, I guess you can say he missed a bit but those misses were designed to set up the shots that Khan wanted to score.

 

I think the reason Khan was missing some shots was down to Zab moving back and bending down, but Khan smartly held Zab's head down held on and got the ref to break them up and reset them.

 

One could also argue that Khans left hand was pulling judah down as that shot that ended the fight landed, and Holding and hitting is a foul... However Judah was stinking up the fight anyways so who gives a ****...

 

True but when you bend down and if the other fighter is coming in with shots you leave yourself open to that foul, if the fighter misses with shots he can stand over and hold you down and ref understands it can't be helped.

But holding and hitting is a foul your right.