Eighteen years ago today: "Pretty Boy" Floyd Joy Sinclair Mayweather vs. Zabdiel "Super Zab" Judah

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Largely overshadowed by the brawl (which has already had plenty of ink dedicated to it and therefore won't be more than passingly mentioned), there was a damn fine boxing match that also transpired in that ring between a pair of generational talents. As we have often learned in this sport, of course, talent alone doesn't equal greatness - which is why the combatants' respective dots are plotted at very different points on the latter 3D graph despite on a simpler plane having probably fairly parallel lines in the former metric.

Billed as "Sworn Enemies", it became just the sort of bad-blood spectacle to warrant such a title - but really this was, at least in the build-up phase, all "kayfabe" to sell a PPV. Zab and Floyd had been childhood friends since 1986, and knew each other from the amateur days - and were close in their early pro careers, playing basketball together frequently.

Legacy on the line with two big egos penned into a 6-7m² canvas, though? Yeah, tempers are going to flare.

Floyd was a comfortable fave at -500 (hilariously, in his 140lb swansong with Arturo Gatti - stylistically bound to be a far greater mismatch on paper, and just that in execution - PBF was favored more tightly, a mere -400 somehow) but that is still relatively close odds for this period of his career. Judah was thought by many to have all the requisite tools needed to beat Mayweather; he was on many fans' and pundits' shortlist to be that sought-for "chosen one" alongside the likes of Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley. Unlike those names, he was a southpaw - the ingredient many experts felt would be key to handing the already brash (if not yet fully morphed into "Money" insufferability) Mayweather his first humbling L. He also was a damn sight faster and more powerful than Marg and probably edged the welter version of SSM by a smidgen in both categories.

You can understand Judah being a bit miffed at being a +375 underdog even with three losses heading in. Don't get me wrong - none of the losses are controversial, but they do all have mitigating explanations (mind you, not calling them as exculpatory as to be making excuses). Tszyu caught him with a perfect shot. Spinks I, nobody's calling a robbery and saying that Judah ought to have outright won - but almost everyone in the world did score it a draw, so he should've retained his belts. Then, most embarassingly, he didn't even train for Baldomir and thus blotted the history books with perhaps the biggest mediocrity to ever wear the lineal champion tag. He deserved to be 0-3 in those matches - at best 0-2-1 - but still, being given less chance than a Gatti would have to leave a chip on his shoulder.

The first four and a half rounds of this were high-level pugilistic chess. Very skillful and competitive - and guess what? Lop it off there, call it a 5-rounder (say, there'd been a cut and gone to scorecards for a TD) - and Judah defeats Mayweather. Clear as day. Nobody on earth has scored this fight soberly and not given ZJ the 1st, 2nd, and 4th rounds. Even the 5th, there's a small handful that call it level 10-10 even though Mayweather took over around halfway in. So that's 48-47 or 49-47 - stretching it, maybe 49-46 - in favor of the champion. (that's right, Zab was defending his IBF title here; Floyd was as yet beltless with just the debuting victory over Sharmba Mitchell at welterweight to his name).

Then, for the next six rounds, we saw a demonstration in talent versus greatness. Press row and the scoresheet aggregator EOTR show nearly a unanimous sweep for the challenger from the 6th through 11th. Invigorated by the fracas a couple of rounds prior, Judah would rally in R12 and in fact claim it on the majority of cards including all three judges - but the deficit was too much. His talent had been matched and his ring IQ shown to be inferior by the master craftsman of their era.

https://eyeonthering.com/boxing/sworn-enemies-zab-judah-vs-floyd-mayweather-jr

 

Yep, bagged himself maybe a pyrrhic twelft round victory but really was a beaten man from halfway into the 5th. It wouldn't have been remotely unreasonable for him to lose via DQ10 as he went full Golota in his mental collapse.

 

This match is also notable for being the last time Mayweather got knocked down by a punch - albeit not ruled as such by third man Richard Steele.

The last time he was ruled down was in the pros, against Carlos "El Famoso" Hernández - but that was a knee PBF took after hurting himself.

The last time he was legit decked and ruled as such was by Lorenzo "El Bárbaro Del Ring" Aragón in the amateurs:
https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/floyd-mayweather-jr-vs-lorenzo-aragón-july-31st-1996.456941/

JLC and Judah both had claims to what ought to have been ruled flash knockdowns, but Judah's case is much stronger.

 

Yeah, wouldn't go as far as calling it a lucky punch but also wouldn't credit Tszyu with "cracking the code" and working Zab out.

That pressure style is going to strike paydirt on a guy (especially when he's a lefty being sniped with a RH) with quick feet and hands playing fast & loose with a hands-down rubbernecking defense once in a while if the stars align. It's a combination of applied skill, patience and fortuitous timing. It's neither fully attributable to luck or skill; it's the dovetailing of both.

In that case, Tszyu hit Judah with a grazing right on his tucked chin as he wheeled away just moments before...so Judah's guard was let down when the second one came whistling in, just enough for him to get caught flush and scrambled into doing the poultry two-step.

In a rematch it could have been another early Tszyu knockout, but it also could have been Judah wising up and schooling him with a weather eye on that southpaw-slayer right hand.