Floyd Mayweather Can't Beat Judah Again, Says Whitaker

By Lem Satterfield

The Zab Judah of today would be able to avenge his April of 2008, unanimous, 12-round decision loss to the current Floyd Mayweather, at least, that's what Judah's new trainer, Pernell Whitaker, believes.

"I don't think that Floyd can beat Zab again," said Whitaker, referring to Judah's failed bid to earn the then-vacant IBF welterweight title. "I just think that if Zab had the mentality that he had last Saturday, which I'm focused on right now, that Zab would have won that fight."

Last Saturday night, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., the 33-year-old Judah (41-6) earned his fifth straight win, his 28th career knockout, and the vacant IBF junior welterweight belt with a seventh-round stoppage of South Africa's 31-year-old Kaizer Mabuza (23-7-3, 14 KOs).

Mabuza had won eight straight times, with six of them being by knockout, including February's sixth-round stoppage of Kendall Holt (26-4, 14 KOs), the man against whom WBO and WBC king Tim Bradley (27-0, 11 KOs) had to rise from the canvas to dethrone as WBO champ in April of 2009.

"A lot of people were in that crowd on Saturday night wanting to see Zab lose, and they didn't want to see me succeed. They didn't want us to succeeed as an organization. But we've proven them wrong. I like to think that we've resurrected Zab's career," said Whitaker, who, like Judah, fought as a southpaw.

"Zab as always talking about how he hits hard and all of that, but it's not necessarily about all of that. It's about speed, which is your power," said Whitaker. "Like I have said before, Zab and I are very similar, and it's like he's got a lot of Pernell Whitaker in him. Zab already knows that he's not a Pernell Whitaker, but he damned sure looked like me on Saturday. He was a very close version of me."

Whitaker last fought in 2001, had a record of 41-4-1, with 17 knockouts, and held the WBC, WBA and IBF lightweight, IBF light welterweight, WBC welterweight, and WBA light middleweight crowns on separate occasions.

Judah has said that he would next like to face Mexico's WBA and WBO lightweight champion, Juan Manuel Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KOs), but Whitaker, a southpaw, former four-division world champion nicknamed, "Sweet Pea," would like to see Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs)-Judah II.

"My dream fight for Zab would be that I'd like to see him fight Floyd again. I watched Zab fight Floyd the first time, and I think that Zab did a good job in the first six rounds. But I would teach him how to finish that fight now. I've got him thinking 12 instead of six," said Whitaker.

"Against Floyd the first time, Zab didn't do too well the last six rounds. Zab didn't win a round over the last six rounds of the Floyd Mayweather fight. We've talked about that fight," said Whitaker. "I've told him that all that he had to do was to win two or three of them last six rounds and you would have won the fight. I told him that it was like he only prepared to fight about eight rounds."