Is Zab Judah a top 10 (15, 20 25?) light welterweight all-time?

Judah over Muangsurin, Booze? I'll have some of what you're smokin' pal.

 

If you start throwing in all the lightweights from yesteryear who fought above weight fights whilst there was no junior welter division you could probably find 100 more qualified guys than Zab.

As an aside: prime Rafael Pineda makes Judah dance again.

 

With five years of hindsight, he does deserve a mention for 'the feat' and beating the likes of Suzuki, Brooks, Velazquez and (maybe) Mamby.

 

Pryor & M.taylor too

 

If you got these kinds of answers on the general forum:

I don't know what you're expecting on the classic forum, mate.

 

Tszyu wasn't all that either IMO.

 

He didn't beat Mamby (another reason Mamby was superb during his best run) but did beat Kimpuani, Fernandez, Barro, Furuyama x2. That's a far more solid 140lb ring record than Judah's. 'Defended' his title 7 times in a year.

Put their best wins up against each other at the weight and the Thai shits all over Judah. In a fight between them both I'll take the guy that never sits down between rounds over the front runner, and that's if Saensak doesn't deal him a Tszyu-esque blow.

Not sure that Judah has ever shown the late rounds poise that Sang-Hyun Kim, another quick southpaw, showed when dissecting Muangsurin, who had supposedly left it in the ring in the Brooks war.

 

I disagree. He was all that and the proverbial bag of potato chips.

 

So, getting starched in two rounds by him doesn't get you a top 25 spot or what? Personally, if he'd finished the job on Nady, I'd have added that to his resume and put him in the top ten. That was another 'nearly' moment for Zabbie's legacy, for me.

 

Meh. He lost to Vince Phillips bang in the middle of his prime. Stiff as a scarecrow on Viagra. Dropped heavily by Hurtado of all people. Sharmba Mitchell, old Chavez and Rog', and Zab Judah? Not all that to get excited over IMO. I think he gets placed in the top 5 light writers just because he's a notable ten stone fighter that immediately comes to mind, when in fact he was good most of the time and very good a handful of times and never great.

All my opinion, but have never understood the plaudits Tszyu gets.

 

I think most of those platitudes come from him unifying the title and ruling a rather deep division (although admittedly he was quite inactive). Hurtado was good enough to give Whitaker, albeit a post prime version, hell. Throw in Gonzales, and a solid pre title run and i'm sold on top 10 standings although his lack of fights keep him well clear of the to 5.

Can you recommend a couple of Muangsurin fights, to get a feel for him?

 

I think Zab is top ten or 15 head to head. Very accomplished
Champion at what 20 or 21. The speed, the power, the swagger
and confidence, he was very dangerous. I admit I have to check
out a lot of those old school guys, I only know really well Benitez
and pryor. But Bradley and Hatton better than Zab at 140 no shot.
Maybe you could argue Hattons case, but Bradley no where near
Zab's raw talent.

 

I always liked watching Zab fight but he doesn't have much of anything to stand on all time. Never dominant, never linear, no really big wins, Ican't even think of any ATG type performances against anybody very good there. Plus losing his big step up pretty embarrassingly.

 

Zab has never been the champion at 140. Your straps mean nothing here.

@LittleRed check out Muangsurin KO1 Barro on YouTube