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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Go ahead, raise your hands.
Anyone who would have guessed – at the close of the eight-week stretch between Aug. 2 and Sept. 27, 2008 – that either Zab Judah and Ricardo Mayorga would still be the stuff of main-event conversation come the onset of spring in 2011.
Nope… me neither.
Back then, by the end of a punishing IBF welterweight scrap with sturdy Ghanian export Joshua Clottey, it appeared the chatty Brooklynite was to be forever labeled a high-potential loudmouth who consistently managed to just miss the output for which his vast potential seemed destined.
The Palms Casino rant that followed a cut-induced technical decision that night reeked of the same immaturity he’d previously shown while accosting referee Jay Nady, ignoring underdog Carlos Baldomir and initiating a near-riot against fellow trouble-maker Floyd Mayweather Jr.
And after a fourth straight title flop in 31 months, I’d have bet a year’s mortgage he was finished.
“Regardless of what they might tell Zab when he returns to Brooklyn,” I wrote in my post-fight that night, “a recent career resume that includes wins over Edwin Vazquez and Ryan Davis sandwiched amid losses to Carlos Baldomir, Mayweather, Cotto and Clottey is most indicative of where the 2008 vintage Judah truly stacks up.”
Little did I know, 31 months past that nadir, the 33-year-old New Yorker would be “Super” again. [Click Here To Read More]
Anyone who would have guessed – at the close of the eight-week stretch between Aug. 2 and Sept. 27, 2008 – that either Zab Judah and Ricardo Mayorga would still be the stuff of main-event conversation come the onset of spring in 2011.
Nope… me neither.
Back then, by the end of a punishing IBF welterweight scrap with sturdy Ghanian export Joshua Clottey, it appeared the chatty Brooklynite was to be forever labeled a high-potential loudmouth who consistently managed to just miss the output for which his vast potential seemed destined.
The Palms Casino rant that followed a cut-induced technical decision that night reeked of the same immaturity he’d previously shown while accosting referee Jay Nady, ignoring underdog Carlos Baldomir and initiating a near-riot against fellow trouble-maker Floyd Mayweather Jr.
And after a fourth straight title flop in 31 months, I’d have bet a year’s mortgage he was finished.
“Regardless of what they might tell Zab when he returns to Brooklyn,” I wrote in my post-fight that night, “a recent career resume that includes wins over Edwin Vazquez and Ryan Davis sandwiched amid losses to Carlos Baldomir, Mayweather, Cotto and Clottey is most indicative of where the 2008 vintage Judah truly stacks up.”
Little did I know, 31 months past that nadir, the 33-year-old New Yorker would be “Super” again. [Click Here To Read More]
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