By Mark Vester

The bad blood between welterweights Zab Judah (36-5, 25 KOs) and Joshua Clottey (34-2, 20 KOs) is no hype. The two fighters do not like each other and both have vowed to destroy the other on Saturday night when they face off in Las Vegas for the vacant IBF welterweight title.

Clottey spoke with boxing scribe Tim Smith and told him that Judah tried to call him out to a street fight in 2004. Judah, the welterweight champion at the time, was upset that Clottey, a fellow Brooklyn boxer, wanted to fight him. When he heard Clottey wanted a shot, Judah and his crew went looking for him at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn.

"It was a week after my fight and I was working out in the gym and he came in and asked me why I wanted to fight him," Clottey said. "He said he would give me money to spar with him. I said I didn't want his money. I wanted to fight him. Then he started acting crazy. He pushed my trainer and he wanted me to go outside and fight him. He really didn't want that because I'm a very good street fighter. That's how I started boxing."

If Clottey wins, he could end up fighting Antonio Margarito in a unification rematch later in the year. Clottey was beating Margarito when they fought back in 2006, until he hurt his hand in the fight and Margarito took over. Clottey told Smith that Margarito is not a very good boxer and his defense has wide holes. He seems confident to win a rematch if the two met again.

"Margarito is not a great boxer," Clottey said. "You can see all of his punches coming. I was catching everything he threw. Even though his defense is not very good, he takes a hard punch. I thought it was not good for Cotto to spend so much time on the ropes, taking punches. I was beating Margarito until I hurt my hand. But I never feared any of his punches because I'm a very good defensive fighter and I caught most of his punches."

Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingscene@hotmail.com