Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KOs) defended his WBA welterweight title in Las Vegas Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and took the IBF welterweight title away from Zab Judah (41-7, 28KO’s). It didn’t take Amir Khan too long to let the older Zab Judah know who was in charge of this fight. In the first round Khan quickly started connecting with his lightning fast jab to the face of Judah, who was content in using his defense to try to stay away. A tactic that wasn’t a surprise coming into this fight. After all, his trainer, Pernell Whitaker was an expert in this. From the outset Khan put on the pressure and used his height and especially his reach advantage to connect with his jab. Suddenly their was a clash of heads as both fighters were punching at close range, but the fight continued on.
Just before the beginning of the second round, Whitaker was heard telling Judah to “keep your head down”, apparently to keep Judah from getting hit from all the jabs and straight right hands that Khan was landing. In this round it was quite apparent that Khan was the younger, faster and sharper boxer in the ring. As the fight went on, that was the obvious. Khan was landing his jab to the face of Judah, landing body shots, and attempting to land his straight right hand. Judah continued to be on the defensive and occasionally landing glancing shots but with no effect at all.
As the third round was beginning to start, the corner of Judah was seen putting the cold iron on the swelling right eye of Judah. He had already began to feel the effect of Khan’s left jab, which was constantly in his face. Khan continued to force the action and quickly connected with a good hard right hand to the face of Judah, who attempted to counter and appeared to be waiting for Khan to make a mistake. Khan then caught Judah on the ropes and landed with both hands as Judah slipped away. Khan then finished the round with several punches as Judah continued to be on the defensive.
At the beginning of the fourth round, the swelling of the right eye of Judah appeared to be already bothering him. As Khan circled to Judah’s right, he continued to land his jab. He then connected with a hard straight right to the head of Judah, whose face was beginning to take a beating. Judah stayed on the defense, appearing to land that one lucky punch, but it didn’t come. The defense was not working and neither were his glancing punches on Khan.
In the final round Khan kept the pressure on and continued to land his left jab. After another clash of heads, Khan landed a good left hook to the head of Judah. Khan then landed a good combination and then a hard right to the head of Judah, who then ducked. Khan then followed with a vicious body punch and Judah went down to the canvas. At first it was not clear if it was a low blow, but after several replays the punch was right above the trunk mark. Judah could not get up from the punch and he was counted out. KO in the fifth round.
In the end, Khan was just too much for the older Judah and he landed more jabs and power punches than his opponent. Through four rounds, Khan was averaging 56 punches per round and Judah only had 23. Out of that, Judah had only landed seven jabs and nine power punches, to Khan’s 26 jabs and 23 power shots.
What’s next for Khan? The sky is the limit for this young superstar in the sport of boxing. He can either go for the WBC welterweight title against the champion, Timothy Bradley who he was supposed to fight instead of Judah, or he can attempt to take a shot at Mayweather or the best pound for pound king of the ring, Manny Pacquiao. He will probably need a couple of big fights against big named fighters before that will happen though. He was quoted as saying “I’ll fight anyone and there are some big names out there for me. I’ll take a look at the short list.” His objective is to continue winning belts and move up in the rankings and someday be the best pound for pound fighter in the world. He appears to be right on track.
Photo © Stacey Verbeek
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