22 years ago today: Konstantin Borisovich "Kostya/Thunder" Tszyu vs. Zabdiel "Super Zab" Judah

This will never get old. I recall people were favoring Judah just on his talents alone. This was an example of the importance of timing and mental discipline that Tszyu had over Judah.

Classic ending to a fight along with a post fight freakout that looked like something out of Jerry Springer.

 

I swear I remember Judah picking up his stool and throwing it at the ref. Why have they eliminated that from all the videos of this fight?

 

You can see it happen at 46:50 in the video while they interview Judah in his dressing room post fight.

 

Yep there it is, I thought so... thanks!

 

"Referee owes him an apology".... These managers are circus con men...

 

Jay Nady, who was an outstanding official, may very well have saved Judah from a very bad, longer term outcome.

Judah was a strong favourite with the bookmakers going into that fight. In hindsight when you look at the respective careers of both fighters up to that point, it’s astonishing that Tszyu didn’t go in as the overwhelming pick. His CV was so much better than Zab’s.

 

A simple case of the better fighter figuring out the lesser fighter and doing so within six minutes. KT lost the first but downloaded what he saw, won the entire second as he applied what he learned in the first and then finished him with the sweetest chin check you will see.

 

Nobody here thinks Zab could've gone on? He looked fine after that initial extraordinary pimp limp...

 

22 years ago? Yet another fight that doesn’t seem as long ago as it actually was.

Part way through round 1 and through round 2, you could see KT making incremental and ever so fine calibrations to the targeting of the right hand, as it whizzed by Zab’s chin, ever closer each time.

No fluke whatsoever when the perfectly timed shot did drop.

 

I remember thinking this could a be a difficult fight for Tszyu because of Judah's movement and speed, but Kostya relaxed, was patient, and just planted that shot in there perfectly.

Judah should have stayed down longer instead of jumping straight back up before his head cleared, he may have survived it had he done that, but it was his own fault. The ref had no choice but to stop it when Judah went into his Trevor Berbick dance.