by James Slater – British light-welterweight Ashley Theophane is angry, very angry. Very much wanting to box on the under-card of the big Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones Junior fight on November 8th (Jones is Theophane’s childhood hero), Theophane has now see his dream ruined due to his third opponent pulling out. Originally, the Brit was to have faced Derrick Gainer, only for “Smoke” to refuse to box any higher than 135-pounds. Then Frenchman Souleymane M’Baye was forced out due to injury, and now former superstar Zab Judah has added his name to the list of unavailable opposition. Theophane, in speaking to boxing writer John Tandy, claims “Super” Judah is doing nothing but shamelessly ducking him through fear..
“Zab Judah is a chump,” Theophane said. “He went around on various boxing websites saying he is going to knock me out in one round and when his people do their background check on me, he backs out. He even tried to nickname me “One-round.” I made all the allowances for him, I agreed to fight him at 144-pounds even though I wanted 140. I knew they wanted an excuse but I agreed to all the demands. I would have ended his world title dreams of fighting Hatton or Paul Malignaggi and sent him to the club circuit.”
Very strong words indeed by a fighter who many fans in America are unlikely to have even heard of. But Ashley does have a genuine cause for complaint. Why has Judah decided not to fight him? Theophane went on expressing his disgust.
“Judah can’t say he’s repping Brooklyn when he’s ducking some unknown kid from London,” Theophane stated. “He’s an embarrassment to Brooklyn. He can roll with his ten bodyguards in Brooklyn but I roll solo. It’s too funny to me, Zab Judah ducks Ashley Theophane. He heard the stories that I wasn’t a joke and backed out. Now he’s fighting some bum on HBO pay per view. I was a Judah fan, but I lost respect for him.”
So far, there has been no public comment by Zab Judah or his team, and it is unknown just who the “bum” he will now be fighting on November 8th is. 28-year-old Theophane, with his good record of 22-3-1(7) would likely have given the former light-welterweight and welterweight world champion an interesting fight. Now it seems we will never know.
Finishing off the interview, Theophane gave his good wishes to his hero, Roy Jones.
“I’m a Roy Jones Junior fan so I hope he wins his fight with Joe Calzaghe and I truly believe he is one of the greatest fighters to ever lace on a pair of gloves.”