Judah Last Night and the Future

Are you kidding? No way was Judah down by 3 rounds.

 

Mabuza's forearm caught Judah across the back of his kneck. Watch the slo-mo.

 

Judah didn't look all that to me last night. Yeah he made Mabuza miss, but Mabuza was still landing solid shots, and on my card winning rounds, as he wa outworking Judah, behind his guard. I had it 4-2 or 3-3 going into the 7th. Not to mention Mabuza landed several clean hard looking straight crosses on Judah through the course of the fight, and even wobbled Judah at one point. Mabuza had a big round in the 6th. I give Judah a lot of credit for hanging in there and landing that shot to the chin. I am not so sure we really saw a different Judah in there though. If he doesn't land that punch, the momentum in the fight had swung in Mabuza's favor big time over the last two rounds up until that point. Say that was Mattysse in there and just laughs the punch off. I am not sure Judah wouldn't have folded like he usually does. I will need to see at least another decent outing by Judah before I can really say I see a change in him in the ring.

 

Had Mabuza up, probably by three points just like Right Cross. Can't really see an argument for Judah being ahead although it was a very close fight.

Round one I scored even (nothing happened, Mabuza was landing some jabs but extremely sloppy, Zab good defensively but did too little except some decent jabs), round two was pretty much the same except for Mabuza's work in the last 30 seconds which probably won that round for him. Round three was clearly Mabuza's. Round four was Zab's but the knockdown made me give it to Mabuza. 10-9 Mabuza, and that's being a bit kind to Zab because generally I only give a 10-9 if the knocked down fighter was winning the round by quite a large margin - perhaps outclassing and even hurting his opponent. Five was a Judah round. Six was, needless to say, Kaiser's round. Seven was close until the stoppage.

Some thoughts on the thread topic:

- Judah needs to let his hands go more. Whenever he does, he looks distinctly world class. He has an excellent right hook that he NEEDS to throw more, I remeber a cracking one to Mabuza's body and the right hook to the body was the only punch he landed with regularity against Clottey. Use it more!

- The simple one-two looked decent every time he threw it. Everything does NOT have to be elaborate left uppercut counters. Simple things could be just as effective and with Zab's speed and power even more so.

- He should take more initiative; not constantly retreating and make the other guy look like the ring general. We know the routine from Clottey, Mathysse and Mabuza fights and it's costing him big.

- He needs to fighten up his defense against right hands. The three aforementioned opponents found him regularly with right hands. Don't pull down your hands and rely only on head movement! The movement IS excellent but he needs to find room for counters, otherwise it's not worth much. It doesn't matter that Mabuza missed 70-80 percent of his punches and was made to look terribly sloppy when you don't throw anything back.

Mabuza wasn't/isn't in Judah's class technically and that fight shouldn't have been close. Horribly wide left hooks, leaning forward when throwing the right, completely inept footwork (watch how slowly and clumsily he resets his feet when Judah moves to his right) with no ability to cut off the ring and poor, poor accuracy. Good power, decent right, range and aggression/physical strength but not much more. Still a good comeback win because he is top ten.

I would pick him over Alexander. He does have a punchers chance against Khan. Due to styles I see Khan running bigger risk of losing than Bradley, who despite his rushing in always comes back. Amir wins by late TKO if he stays focused though. And yes, he would outwork Zab because Judah does too little. JMM is 60/40 in JMM's favour. Kotelnik beats him closely. Maidana could be knocked out but it will probably be the other way around. Mathysse is still a close one but he beats Ortiz and Peterson.

You need to respect Judah if you want to win against him. His power is scary when he throws and his retreating IS deceiving (about the only thing the ass-kissing commentators got right). JMM, Khan and Bradley will defo win as long as they don't get overconfident. Still, he looked the same I thought. Ciani's article on the main page is not a good reflection of the fight at all and made the performance look much better than it was. Biased piece and not very good boxing journalism. I dind't see anything that qualifies into "laser jabs" in those ealy round even though his jab is good.

I appreciate his win because it livens up the JWW division. Mabuza isn't talanted enough to take on the big boys whereas Judah has potential and a bigger name. He looks the same but IF - and that's an "if" we've heard throughout his whole career - he could do some of the things above I would pick him over more fighters like Kotelnik, Maidana, Mathysse and even JMM (well, at least closer odds vs Marquez). The other two (Bradley, Khan) he gets beaten by either way.

 

you kill yourself by bringing Kotelnik in the discussion.

Judah doesn't have to do anything to the likes of him or Maidana, he has fought their equals or better in Mathassye and Mabuza. Champs from here on out.

 

He's looking better. His defense and movement is far better. He needs to improve his workrate though.

Pernell's doing a good job with him so far.

 

I don't agree. Mathysse was and still is unproven with only a win over a - physically and mentally - shot Vivian Harris.

Mabuza's foe was similarly over-the hill in Kendall Holt - a dangerous fighter on his day, sure, but his best days are behind him.

Kotelnik has been top five for several years now. He has disputed decisions against Witter, M'Baye x2, robbed against Alexander, a close fight with Maidana (draw for me), He has also faced top two (and my number one) Amir Khan. The others were top five at the time. It would be foolish to discount Kotelnik's chances against Judah. Both fighers are prone to getting outworked but Kotelnik's right hands that he repeteatedly strifed Alexander with and his measured approach could be the difference.

Maidana has, as you probably know, beat Ortiz, Cayo and was terribly close to getting Khan out of there. He could well have won against Kotelnik. Khan and Kotelnik are top three and top five, Ortiz was top ten and Cayo is interesting I feel.

Now you tell me; which fighters stack up higher? Come on, calling Mathysse and Mabuza equals to Maidana and Kotelnik is short-minded and ignores longevity and class of opponents. It's not close! Harris wasn't top 15 and Holt was barely top 10 at that time.

Let Judah fight Kotelnik, JMM or Maidana. The winner can take on Khan vs Bradley which I expect will be made. The more I think about it, the more convinced am I that Judah shouldn't be allowed to take on the top two without fighting more proven opponents first. Maidana and Kotelnik are higher ranked, top five and have had disputed decisions in their last two fights. Picking up a paper trinket doesn't make you pass them - no way.

Judah has beaten number 6/7 (disputedly) and 7/8. Let's see him against number 3 and 4 before we let him take on the best two. He can't get any more undeserved title shots just because of his name. That's not how boxing should work.

 

I stand by what I said, Judah is a champ, he went through a pretty tough 2 fight streak to get the title, you bring up Maidana but he only be a hyped prospect not anyone who was established. Kotelnik lost to Bradley (I thought Bradley won by a round or two, could have went either way but it is a Bradley win), he lost to Khan, Judah is at the age where is isn't fighting b-level guys he is out to unify. Unless he is fighting someone like JMM for legacy sake, I don't see him taking on too many people just for the hell of it, hopefully he can get a fight with Amir, Bradley, or at the worst the Maidana-Devon winner though.

 

I really liked the way he fought he seemed to be pacing himself, which was great too see. I would have liked to see him a little more aggressive though to take real control of the fight but as the commentators said Mabuza hits hard!

For peope saying Maidana KOs Judah are you remembering he was in with Mathyse and survived?

 

I have to give credit to Judah, especially considering how people were betting on Mabuza for his relentlessness. He controlled the fight, overcame a bit of adversity, and knocked his man out.

 

nuh uh sir, Malignaggi has turned into TOO much of a power puncher :deal

 

Are you kidding? paulie knocks the **** out of judah