Impossible to say. He was absolutely sparked by KT, and he was a confidence fighter. But beyond that... Personally, I think it accentuated the quitter in him whenever a bout got tough in all fights thereafter.
Certainly. The loss to Kostya i believe did surprise him as i think he expected to go in there and walk Kostya down. He completely dominated him in the 1st round but then made school boy errors in the 2nd round and was ultimately stopped. Prior to that he did have some good wins against B and C level guys and he wsa certainly seen as a rising star. But Judah was always known as a hothead. Unfortunately his unprofessional temperament hasnt allowed to achieve his full potential which is certainly miles more than any of his brothers.
Zab was probably on the fast track to be the next big thing in boxing before that fight. He never lived up to his potential though a front runner, no disicpline and a mental midget in the ring. He relied too much on his speed and power to dazzle and freeze up lesser fighters but once you step up to the elite it becomes less effective you need to have other things to win and he simply doesn't.
Your exactly right, but I will give him the Spinks 2 fight. That left hook was vicous that started the ass whoopin :good
I personally think that was an awful stoppage on the part of Jay Nady. I don't know how the Tszyu fight would've turned out had Nady let the fight continue. I do know that as long as Judah became more interested in that Brooklyn street cred **** and hanging out with all those rappers instead of dedicating himself to the sport, it was inevitable that his career would never reach it's potential. Someone posted a tread yesterday about Zab being an underrachiever so I feel like a broken record here but I'll say it again. Zab Judah is the most "physically gifted" fighter I've seen since RJJ. The only guy on the horizon that has similar type natural ability is Gamboa. I think if Zab had gotten rid of his father early in his career and gone with a real trainer who could keep his ass focused, things might have turned out differently......I guess you can say the same for another waste of talent from Brownseville that I don't need to mention, but its all specualtion at this point.
It wasnt awful. Judah was staggering all over the place. I would have liked to have seen a 10 count to be honest. But when a man is staggering all over the place a ref stoppage is pretty much undeniable.
He looked very promising but his level of oppostion wasnt very high so its always going to be easier for a mentally weak fighter to open on guys he knows are beneath him. Since Tszyu got him ive never really been impressed with Zab vs quality fighters he always gets tired,doesnt take the greatest punch,doesnt jab or move enough,cant make adjustments although ill admitt its hard with Joel throwing combos 2 inches from his face between rounds,telegraphs the left and doesnt throw enough combos or throw enough punches at all these days which makes his great speed worthless.
The rules of bxing state if the fighter goes down twice off of one knockdown the fight shall be stopped, Nady wouldve been wrong not to stop it!
Before that fight I thought Judah was on his way to being a top 3 p4p fighter. I think the thing about that fight that most bothered Judah was the fact that he was beaten up in that second round, it wasn't just a lucky punch at the end, Tszyu was hurting him and had him backpedaling more than dancing, that's how he got caught with two big rights at the end. I think he had too high an opinion of his skills before that and didn't know how to react to being slapped around, not to mention KTFO.