By Mitch Abramson
Zab Judah, the Brownsville transplant now living in Las Vegas, could make his return to the ring in February or March, his father, Yoel Judah told BoxingScene. Judah remains in Las Vegas, licking his wounds after a disappointing effort against Amir Khan in July, which ended with Judah seemingly feigning a low blow and the referee counting him out in the fifth round. Yoel blamed that performance by Judah on a flawed game plan created, in part, by trainer Pernell Whitaker.
“It was the wrong style to use against Khan,” Yoel said. “This is not a dancing contest. You can’t go in there and dance around the ring, and expect to win. I told Pernell before the fight, that if you go in there with that Whitaker stuff, I told him it’s the wrong style. That stuff worked 20 years ago. These fighters today, they throw punches, that’s what we should have been doing.”
When Judah returns to the ring next year, he will do so with a whole new team in his corner, Yoel said, without elaborating on who would be training his son, whether he will be his sole trainer again or who he might bring in to help.
“You have to have a winning team in there,” Yoel said. “One thing about Floyd [Mayweather], who I’m cool with, you can say whatever you want to say about him, but he always keeps the same team with him. He never changes. That’s what we need to be.”
In the meantime, while Zab is in Las Vegas, Yoel is back in Brownsville, where he recently opened his own boxing gym, the “Judah Brothers Boxing Gym” in August that has three rings, caters to boxing and M M A, and also comes equipped with a basketball court. The space previously housed the Kid Kelly Boxing Gym. Yoel is currently training Delen Parsley, a 6-0 junior middleweight, and a slew of amateurs, of which 12 may be entered in the Golden Gloves next year. The semifinals of the Metros on Nov. 18 are scheduled to take place in his gym, as is a Golden Gloves show.
“This gym caters to kids in the street,” Yoel said. “It’s a nice gym, with a lot of activity. These kids I have are hungry. I’ve got so many fighters, maybe 16-17. They’re hungry.”
Barely a mile away, another boxing gym is set to open in Brownsville, around Thanksgiving, a Cops & Kids gym spanning 10,000 feet, according to Pat Russo of Cops & Kids. Russo is hoping the two gyms can co-exist happily, with Cops & Kids catering to a younger demographic and Judah’s gym to professional boxers.
