This Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Zab “Super” Judah (41-6, 28KO’s), will be taking on Amir “King” Khan (25-1, 17KO’s) from England in a 12 round unification title fight. They will be fighting for the WBA Super World Light Welterweight Title and the IBF Welterweight Title of the world.
Zab Judah, who is on the comeback trail, is the current IBF light welterweight title holder and Khan is the current WBA light welterweight champion. The more experienced and older fighter, Judah, is 33 years old, but he also has fought in at least 18 or so world title fights. He also is the former IBF and WBC light welterweight champion of the world, in addition to being a former Super Welterweight champion, and an IBC middleweight champion.
Judah is coming into this fight after capturing the IBF welterweight title in March of this year against Kaizer Mabuza (23-6-3) with his new trainer, Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker, who himself is a former world champion. Whitaker as you know, fought for many world titles, and also fought two memorable fights against the “Golden Boy”, Oscar DeLahoya. Because of the exceptional defense that he is going to learn from the former champion Whitaker, and the championship experience that he himself has, Judah has a very good chance of upsetting the young and hungry Khan.
For Judah, the southpaw, Whitaker seems to be the perfect trainer to be handling his corner for this mega fight. After all, Judah was just a young fighter when he was training in the same gym long ago when Whitaker was already a world champion. It seems to have gone full circle for Judah, who now has a chance to regain his spotlight in the boxing world. Although Judah tested his skills against the bigger Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather, he is now back to his perfect weight. The only other fight he lost at welterweight was against the Australian Kostya Tszyu back in 2001. He has said that he feels that Khan does not have the experience that he has and that he has won five world titles. He said he plans to take Khan “to a place he has never been before.”
For Khan, this is the next step toward a super mega fight, maybe against Floyd Mayweather, or even the great Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao. Khan is coming into this fight with seven wins, with the last two being decisions. In his fight against Marcos Maidana, Khan was hurt, but he came through and got the win. That fight that was named the 2010 fight of the year by the Boxing Writers Association of America. Against Judah, he must be very careful not to get in this position, because Judah knows how to finish his opponents. Nevertheless, the taller and younger Khan is on the verge of superstardom. By winning the WBA World Lightweight title in 2009, and defending it four times, he now has the opportunity to unify two of the welterweight titles of the world. The WBC light welterweight title is now held by Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11KO’s).
Khan is being trained by Freddie Roach, the same trainer for the great Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao. So, it appears that both fighters have the best that boxing can have in their corners. In addition, Khan has sparred with the Pacman in the past for his own mega fights. For this fight, Khan was training in the heat of Los Angeles, and now has been training in the Las Vegas summer heat, but it appears to be fine with him. He has been doing his road work early in the mornings in the hills of Las Vegas in preparation of this fight and his conditioning with Alex Ariza have been right on track. He knows that Judah is an experienced fighter and that he cannot take any chances. Freddie Roach is happy with the way Khan’s training has developed and Khan has said that he can’t wait to get into the ring. Khan has also said that he is “more than ready for this fight, and he knows exactly what to do”.
The undercard:
Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin (24-0, 18 KO’s) faces New Hampshire veteran Jason LeHoulier (21-5-1, 8 KO’s) – 10 rounds.
Gary Russell Jr. (16-0, 10 KO’s) of Capitol Heights, Maryland against Eric “El Loco” Estrada (9-1, 3 KO’s) from Chicago. – 8 rounds.
Bryant Jennings (8-0, 4 KO’s) will face Chicago’s Theron Johnson (5-5, 1 KO) – 6 rounds.
James “Mandingo Warrior” Kirkland (28-1, 25 KO’s), who recently won a first round knockout over Dennis Sharpe in Frisco, Texas, will face Alexis Hloros (15-3-2, 11 KO’s). – 8 rounds.
Ronny Rios (14-0, 6 KO’s) will face Noe Lopez Jr. (8-8, 5 KO’s) – 8 rounds.
Josiah Judah (9-1-1, 2 KO’s) goes against Rafal Jastrzebski (4-6-1, 1 KO) – 6 rounds.
Jamie “The Nuisance” Kavanagh (7-0, 3 KO’s) will fight against Marcos Herrera (6-5-1, 2 KO’s). – 6 rounds.
The 12-round WBA and IBF Super Lightweight World Championship Unification fight, is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Main Events in association with Khan Promotions and Super Judah Promotions and sponsored by Cerveza Tecate and AT&T. The doors open at 2:30pm and the first fight begins at 2:30pm. The HBO World Championship Boxing telecast begins at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT. In the United Kingdom, the event will be broadcast live on Primetime Pay-Per-View, channel 480 on Sky for £14.95 at 3:00 a.m. BT.
All photos © Stacey Verbeek
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