Zab Judah had a 56-fight career and boxed many of the best fighters of his era, from Floyd Mayweather Jnr to Cory Spinks and from Kostya Tszyu to Miguel Cotto.
The fast-handed Brooklyn southpaw Judah saw a lot in his time as a pro, which ran from 1996 to 2019.
The Mayweather fight in 2006 was big, even though Judah came in off a surprise loss to Argentina's rugged Carlos Baldomir.
It wasn’t just significant, however. It was chaotic. Judah started well, but in the 10th, some of the most memorable scenes of the boxing decade took place. Judah landed a shot low and another behind the head, and Mayweather was given a timeout.
Mayweather’s uncle and trainer, former world champion Roger, flew into the ring and went after Judah. As Roger was restrained, Zab’s father and trainer, Yoel, entered the ring and threw hands at Roger. Soon, the melee had escalated to the point that members of both camps had filled the ring.
It took several minutes before order returned.
“It was mad, but it wasn’t irrespective of my father,” Judah said almost 20 years on. “Roger Mayweather and [Mayweather’s manager] Leonard Ellerbe got in the ring and tried to come and attack me. My father got in the ring and came out, and after he seen him hit, he punched Roger in the face and dropped him. He punched Roger in the face and dropped him, and when I seen that, I knew it was go time. Me, I know my father. My father's a ninth-degree black belt, shotokan jujitsu, three-time kickboxing world champion.
“I know him. I seen him when he got in the ring. I seen his walk. I know it. I know it.
“I know his attitude. I know how he was. So when I seen him get in the ring, and when I seen him walking over there, I was like, ‘Uh-oh.’
“And when I seen him throwing that right hand at Roger, and he hit him, boom. I said, ‘Here you go. Game time.’
“And I knew from there, let’s go to work. You know, one thing about our family is we’re not worried about no one. We’re on TV. We’re in front of the world. We’re on pay-per-view. Conduct yourself. You have my father. Brother, we going to war. ASAP. We don’t give a fuck where we at. We going to war. You know, so that’s how that happened. So that was real. That was real life. That was real time, real life, real emotion, real people. I mean, as you see, Floyd went in the corner. He stood there. He didn’t do anything. I’m just cut from a different cloth. I mean, the way I looked at it, like, they was trying to jump my pops.”
Judah was never in the fight after that, and Mayweather ran out a comfortable winner. Did the fracas play a part?
“That changed the whole trajectory of fighting. I mean, if you look at it, and you really want to be honest, the fight should have been stopped right there,” Judah explained.
“The fight should have stopped. I was choked out in the corner. You know, people don't know. So when I ran in and at Roger, somehow Roger got under me, and he was choking me. So the corner guy, the security in the back had me. He had my arms against the ropes, and I was pinned back. My arm was down, and Roger was choking me. He choked me until I kind of, like, passed out. You know what I mean? So the fight should have been stopped right there in disqualification. Two guys came in the ring. We all know if it was the other way around, where two of my guys came after Floyd, that would have been automatic disqualification, 100 per cent.”
Judah, of course, was no stranger to controversy by that point. Five years earlier, he was stopped by Tszyu, and as Judah protested he threw a stool at referee Jay Nady.
“I just tell people this, man,” said Judah. “I was a product of my environment.
“I’m not ashamed of it. I embrace it. I’m not proud of it [the stool throw], but I’m not ashamed of it, either, because I’m from Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York. And if people don’t know what that is, that’s poverty times 10 down. And coming from there, I was a very exceptional fighter at a young age, and I would pass a lot of money, a lot of money at a young age. I was a product of my environment. So what did I do when I got my life and I got everything? I remained Brooklyn. I was Brooklyn. I took Brooklyn on a road with me. So everywhere you see me at the young age, remember, we were young guys. Remember, I turned professional at 18 years old. Twenty years old, I was champ of the world. I had millions. I was running around the world. I had my own crew. I was loaded. So it was like, coming from the hood and, I was a product of my environment, let’s just put it like that. So I kind of mimicked and acted as a Brownsville kid.
