18.03.09 – by James Slater – Like him or loathe him, and whether you feel he deserves to be or not, former light-welterweight and welterweight champ Zab “Super” Judah is still one of the biggest names in the 140-pound division. He may have lost a number of his most recent hi-profile bouts, but the southpaw from Brooklyn is still in the hunt for fights against the top men in his weight class – most of all Ricky Hatton..
Like just about anybody in his division, Judah, now aged 31 and with a record of 37-6(25), wants to get it on with “The Hitman.” However, in an interesting piece of news as reported by British Boxing News, Judah is anxious to first land a fight with Hatton’s younger brother, 27-year-old Matthew. In fact, the flashy New Yorker wants to fight BOTH Hattons – one after the other.
Judah has a bout scheduled for May 1st in Las Vegas, the night before Ricky Hatton meets Manny Pacquiao, and he wants the opponent to be the 35-4-1(13) Matthew Hatton. Then, should he win, Zab would like to fight Hatton the huge star (presumably whether Ricky has either defeated or been defeated by Pacquiao).
Judah’s promoter, Adam Fish, spoke to Boxing News about his fighter’s plan.
“Zab wants to fight Ricky and we also want to capitalise on the amount of Brits and Filipinos in Vegas for his fight (against Pacquiao, the night following Judah’s May 1st bout),” Fish said. “Ashley Theophane’s team have contacted me but the guy we’re really looking at is Matthew. He’s taken a huge step up in the last year. He looked great beating Ben Tackie.”
Matthew Hatton has said he would definitely take the Judah fight, but he must first go through with his March 28th bout against Ted Bami.
“As long as I come through against Bami without significant damage, I’d have both fights,” Matthew said. “I’m slated for a slot on (the under-card) of Ricky’s bill anyway. But if they want it for May 1st they better get a move on and contact my team. Judah would be a fantastic opportunity and I certainly think I could win.”
What this all adds up to is a potentially very smart move on the part of Zab Judah. Should he beat up on Ricky’s little brother, there would be a fair chance at least that “The Hitman” would want to get in there with the Brooklynite and exact revenge – thus Zab would get his mega-fight. I did say ‘potentially’ a very smart move on the part of Judah, though, because at this stage of his career a fight against the lesser known Hatton wouldn’t be a gimme for him. Naturally, if he were to lose to Matthew all bets would be off regarding his bout with Ricky.
Still, Zab would have to be made the favourite over Matthew, due to his much greater experience if nothing else. Let’s see if this intriguing precursor to an even more intriguing fight does indeed happen on May 1st.