Is Zab Judah the biggest waste of talent in his era?

[JK1700]

He had a very good career, but when you look at all the physical gifts he had he should have done so much more. I know he won 4 world titles, but this guy had unbelievable speed and skill. As we all know he didn't have much self control and never seemed to be able to turn the tide in his fights when things were going wrong. There's no way a guy with his talent should have lost to Baldomir, Khan, Clottey etc, but he gave up to the pressure of all these guys. Being as fast as he was I always thought it was weird that he didn't pay much attention to defense either. He should have. His career would've lasted a few years longer.

I'm not going to go as far as to say he should've beaten Tszyu or Mayweather, some people think he had even more speed/physical gifts than Floyd, I don't think that's true, but if he was mentally strong and could adjust he would've been very hard to beat. I thought he was unfortunate in the Cotto fight with all the low blows, but ultimately the fight probably would have been similar just based off what we have seen in the past. The Baldomir fight is the one that defines him to me.

Is there anyone else in that era who you think had more potential than him and didn't live up to it (well he did to an extent, but you know what I mean). Also, please let me know some other guys who were really talented like him but let themselves down in other areas, I know he's still young but Adrien Broner already comes to mind, hahaha. Amir Khan also, pays absolutely no attention to defense.

[DAVID READ]

The only one I can think of who wasted his talents more was Joan Guzman.

[repsa]

Judah did good considering he had a bad chin and bad attitude.

[Earl-Hickey]

He had a very good career, but when you look at all the physical gifts he had he should have done so much more. I know he won 4 world titles, but this guy had unbelievable speed and skill. As we all know he didn't have much self control and never seemed to be able to turn the tide in his fights when things were going wrong. There's no way a guy with his talent should have lost to Baldomir, Khan, Clottey etc, but he gave up to the pressure of all these guys. Being as fast as he was I always thought it was weird that he didn't pay much attention to defense either. He should have. His career would've lasted a few years longer.

I'm not going to go as far as to say he should've beaten Tszyu or Mayweather, some people think he had even more speed/physical gifts than Floyd, I don't think that's true, but if he was mentally strong and could adjust he would've been very hard to beat. I thought he was unfortunate in the Cotto fight with all the low blows, but ultimately the fight probably would have been similar just based off what we have seen in the past. The Baldomir fight is the one that defines him to me.

Is there anyone else in that era who you think had more potential than him and didn't live up to it (well he did to an extent, but you know what I mean). Also, please let me know some other guys who were really talented like him but let themselves down in other areas, I know he's still young but Adrien Broner already comes to mind, hahaha. Amir Khan also, pays absolutely no attention to defense.

Khan was faster than him, simple as that.

Judahs main asset was speed but he looked slow compared to khan.

[GhostofDempsey]

There have been quite a few who measure up and maybe even exceed him:

Paulie Spadafora

Ike Ibeabuchi

Edwin Valero

[Rockybigblower]

Sergey kovalev

[Anthony342]

Good call on Kovalev. I'd also add Yuriorkis Gamboa. His career seems to have stalled since moving up to lightweight.

[JK1700]

Ibeabuchi, Guzman and Gamboa are all great suggestions here. Regarding Amir Khan, he was always going to beat Judah at that point in their careers but seeing as how Danny Garcia was able to beat him, Judah should've at least made it competitive but he quit which was down to him not being able to stick it out and turn the tide in his fights. I really thought Gamboa was going to be something special when he was on the come-up around 2009-2010, ultimately having 4 fights in 4 years coming up to the Crawford fight really wasn't good and now I don't know what he should do at this point. His career was definitely badly managed towards the end, Kovalev? He just ran into the wrong guy, if Ward wasn't around it's hard for me to imagine anyone else beating him but we will see what he does next.

[OctoberRed]

No way. Biggest waste of talent has to be Jermain Taylor or Kelly Pavlik. Both reached the biggest heights possible and then came crashing down.

[JK1700]

No way. Biggest waste of talent has to be Jermain Taylor or Kelly Pavlik. Both reached the biggest heights possible and then came crashing down.

Not sure about Pavlik but JT for sure. It's crazy to think how short his run was after dethroning Hopkins. From what I heard the main thing was he lost his discipline. After fights he was one who would blow up 30-40lbs in weight then struggle to get it off. This is why his stamina wasn't up to par, if not for this mistake he might have beat Pavlik, Froch and Abraham. It's sad to see where he is now.