By Mark Vester
As I recently reported, the bad blood between welterweights Zab Judah (36-5, 25 KOs) and Joshua Clottey (34-2, 20 KOs) has been going on since a 2004 altercation at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn. This coming Saturday, they finally get a chance to settle their beef as they battle for the vacant IBF welterweight title in Las Vegas. HBO will televise.
Clottey's version of the events, given to boxing scribe Tim Smith, allege that Judah confronted him at Gleason's Gym back in 2004 and tried to bait him into a street fight. Judah, the welterweight champ at the time, was upset at Clottey over his demand for a title shot.
"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."
Judah has now also spoken with Smith, and his version is a bit different. He claims that Clottey saw him every day at the gym and never said a word, but after a recent win [in 2004], Clottey called him out on live television. Instead of waiting for a sanctioned bout, Judah wanted to fight him right there.
"It was all a misunderstanding," Judah said. "After his fight he went on television talking about how he wanted to fight me. Why would he do that when we see each other in the gym every single day? I said if you want to fight me why don't we do it right now, right here. He backed down."
Judah tells Smith that Clottey is not on his level as a fighter, and he says there is no way that he can lose to a fighter like Clottey.
"Yeah, I feel like that's where I'm at," said Judah. "But there's no way I'm losing to Joshua Clottey. He's in a different level than me. He hasn't been in with the type of guys I've been in with."
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