Zab Judah, the former undisputed welterweight champion, is content with what he achieved and says he is enjoying life after boxing.
However, the competitive juices are still flowing inside the 48-year-old Judah.
“It’s beautiful, man,” Judah told BoxingScene about life as it is today. “God is the greatest. So life is beautiful. Everything is blossoming out to be exactly what it's supposed to be. As a fighter, you never walk away from fighting. Especially a person in my status. I started doing this since five years old. [From] five years old to the age of 41. That’s been my duration of boxing. Throughout the timelines, I’ve never done anything else but box. I went from one level, from the bottom, all the way to the top. I accomplished everything there is to accomplish in boxing. I have probably every accolade there is to have in boxing. I have every belt there is to have in boxing. I have it, you know what I mean? So to give it up and walk away, that’s never an option.”
Judah suffered a serious brain injury in his last fight, against Cletus Seldin in June 2019.
However, he has since been told he is in good health.
“I always stay in shape. I stay in shape,” Judah said with a smile. “My body feels good. My weight is still well. I still go to the gym. I work out with guys and I spar. You know, just the thought of taking on a competitive, professional, real fight, I mean, that’s another whole thought pattern... But staying in shape, competing, still sparring, still training, I do all that. We do everything. But to go back in the ring and say Zab Judah vs. Terence Crawford, I don’t know about that.”
Judah does admit, however, that there is part of him that feels lost as an ex-fighter, as so many former boxers – at all levels – do.
“It’s almost like having a dog with a cut-off head and it’s still walking, still trying to fight,” he said. “You know, that’s probably what I am, a dog with no head right now. My last fight we did, you see we had brain surgery, went in very bad. It’s been six years now. I’ve been back to the doctor. I’ve had CAT scans to show that my brain has fully, 100 per cent healed up. My brain is back intact. My skull is back closed. It’s 100 per cent closed. I’ve had readings from my neurologist and it’s amazing. And that’s why I always tell people all the time in life, God is the greatest and never count anything out. Because anytime, anything in your life, you can be and become anything that you would like to be.”
