Zab Judah: Why Was He So Hyped?

Kellerman talked a ton of **** about Tszyu. Hilarious seeing how that and his prediction blew up in his face. I was not hardcore into boxing back then so I missed a lot of the press which was more underground at the time.

http://a.espncdn.com/boxing/columns/kellerman_max/1268005.html

I've heard that he regularly ripped into Tszyu on his radio show. Total clown.

http://a.espncdn.com/boxing/columns/kellerman_max/1274417.html

This stuff is pure gold.

 

People saying he couldn't fight or didn't have heart are hilarious. You have to have heart and be able to fight to be competitive with world class opponents. Judah was ultra talented but also a lot more fragile than his peers. I wouldn't say that he had no heart - it's human to want to quit during a beating - He just didn't have world class toughness

 

Talented fighter no doubt, he was walking through his opposition until Tszyu steam rolled him.. literally knocked the steam out of his momentum, wasn't as active for a couple of years after that. But would go onto avenge a loss to Spinks who was a tall southpaw & a unified WW champion, who had wins over Mayorga, Judah, Gonzalez etc.. Spinks would go into become a champion at 154 too & in fact challenge for Taylor's belts at 160 pushing him close..

Consider the praise i.e Crawford gets for beating men like postol & Indongo.. Spinks was better than both of those two imo

Judah also took Matthysse' 0 in a decent late career performance , close fight but he got the nod.. a lot of ppl refer to Judah as a 4 round fighter, & I can see that a bit, he tends to fade somewhat

Good career. Bad loss to Tszyu but was good enough to give Floyd problems.

 

He did try that dq bull****. I will give you that

 

Hilarious that Spinks actually did the Judah dance when he got stopped here too:

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zab had enormous natural ability.
but he was very immature and a real hot-head

 

Judah was a world champion at 22, more raw physical talent than Floyd Mayweather Jr, some of the quickest hands in boxing, very hard to hit and KO power. Yes Judah was an incredible prospect who didn't quite fullfill his potential. He still became a 2 weight champion

 

Before the fight with Tszyu, he was ranked in the top 3 in the P4P list. He was steamrolling the opposition and was seen in many boxing circles as the next Whittaker. He had speed, power and natural talent.

He was a 3-1 favorite to beat Tszyu in their fight. So it's not just Kellerman who hyped him up. The boxing community was hyping him up and the bookies had faith in his abilities.

Tszyu basically exposed him, not as a bad fighter, but as a mental midget who couldn't believe that someone could beat him. Judah thought he was invincible and he regularly refer to himself as Superman. Even after the defeat, he still went on to become the Undisputed Welterweight Champion. How many people can say that? Not bad for a fighter who you think is over-hyped.