By Joe Harrison

Last February, Zab Judah scored a ninth-round technical knockout over Corey Spinks to win the WBC, WBA, and IBF welterweight titles. Because Judah (34-2, 25 KO’s) posses such power, speed, and skill, we’ve had no reason to believe that anyone would dethrone him anytime soon. That was until today’s top pound-for-pound boxer, Floyd Mayweather Jr, recently entered the welterweight division.

For some time, boxing fans were anxious to see what Mayweather’s (35-0, 24 KO’s) next move would be. There was talk of him fighting light welterweight champion, Ricky Hatton, which would’ve created unification between Mayweather’s WBC title and Hatton’s IBF title.

Then we heard that Mayweather was moving up to the welterweight division to challenge Zab Judah for the undisputed welterweight championship. As the rumors continued, there was talk of a showdown between Mayweather and Winky Wright in the super welterweight division.

Finally, it was made clear that Mayweather was challenging the former two-time light welterweight champion, Sharmba Mitchell, in a special twelve-round welterweight bout. This bout took place Saturday, November 19th.

As everyone guessed, Mayweather defeated Mitchell by a technical knockout during the sixth round. Now that Mayweather is a welterweight, it is doubtful that he’ll move back down to light welterweight to take on Ricky Hatton. Unless he continues moving up in weight, it appears that he’s going after Judah’s undisputed welterweight championship.

Rumors are already circulating that the match-up may take place on Saturday, March 18th, if Judah successfully defeats Carlos Manuel Baldomir (41-9-6, 12 KO’s) on January 7th. Assuming that this fight actually takes place between Judah and Mayweather, it will be nothing compared to the mismatch between Mayweather and Mitchell.

At the age of 28, Judah appears to be in his prime and more focused than ever. He has improved quite a bit since losing to Corey Spinks by unanimous decision in April of ’04, and to Kostya Tszyu by a second-round technical knockout in November of ’01. Judah has been utilizing his potential to the fullest, being aggressive without being careless, and winning by knockouts rather than close split decisions like he earned in bouts against DeMarcus Corley and Rafael Pineda.

It was after his split decision win over Pineda in May of ’04 that we saw a more focused and determined Judah. Five months later, he defeated Wayne Martell by a first-round technical knockout. Then, after defeating Spinks in their rematch last February, he made a quick return to the ring in May to make the first defense of his titles against Cosme Rivera. In a very one-sided fight, Judah knocked down Rivera three times en route to a third-round technical knockout victory.
 
Looking to the future, Judah should have no problem defending his titles against Baldomir on January 7th. Therefore, if and when Judah meets Mayweather, we will have quite a show on our hands. Judah will definitely provide better competition for Mayweather, unlike the mismatch we saw between Mitchell and Mayweather. Although the odds are against him, Judah may very well hand Mayweather his first defeat.