by Geoffrey Ciani (Interviewed by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) – This week’s 110th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with former two-division world champion Zab Judah (40-6, 27 KOs), who is scheduled to face Kaizer Mabuza (23-6-3, 14 KOs) on March 5 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey for the vacant IBF junior welterweight championship. Judah spoke about his upcoming fight, talked about his future, and provided opinions on the current boxing landscape. Here is some of what he had to say:
On how he’s feeling as he prepares for his fight against Kaizer Mabuza:
“I’m feeling great. I understand my confidence is up. I got the best defensive trainer in the world. My skills are impeccable. My defense is ferocious. I mean I can’t be stopped. March 5 is an extravaganza. I want to everybody just put on their seatbelts, get your buckets of popcorn, and sit down. Zab ‘Super’ Judah is in the building!”
His views on his opponent Mabuza:
“I mean listen. Kaizer Mabuza is a hard-working fighter. Right now we’re going to looking at him as the hardest working fighter in the business. I’m setting my eyes on Kaizer Mabuza like he is pound-for-pound the greatest fighter in the world. Everybody knows Zab ‘Super’ Judah, when I focus and when I lock in on somebody, it’s a wrap. This guy I’m focused in and locked on, not just because of Kaizer Mabuza, but just because of the event and the extravaganza. You know with the whole thing bringing to the table itself, just winning another title, being back in the picture, and being smarter, being wiser, and just being ready for it!”
On his experiences working with Pernell Whitaker in preparations for this fight:
“I feel great! Pernell Whitaker has been a blessing to me. I feel like all of this is being put together. This is all God-sent. It’s just perfect, man.”
On what it would mean to once again become a world champion:
“Well you got to remember at 140 I never lost the title. I vacated my belt. I vacated and moved up to 147 pounds to fight for the undisputed championship of the world against Cory Spinks. So you got to understand how I look at myself and how I label myself in this weight division. I look at myself, you know, as still a champion. I mean it’s just a mental motivation thing. I look at myself as still a champion at the weight. I didn’t get beat out, I bowed out. Now I’m just starting to pick up. It’s almost like having a good friend and leaving something over their house, and then you move out of town but when you move back, you’re like, ‘Alright, I’m back now, I need my stuff back’. So that’s what’s going on right now.”
On what it would mean for him to silence his critics and prove his doubters wrong:
“That’s not the goal. The goal is just to go in there and keep winning and for them to keep their same thought pattern and for them to just keep marching in their own small little world and in their heads believing whatever they want to believe. That’s why I’m here to tell ya’ll I’m not just here to all of what’s going on, and my life’s changed now, and no. Leave it like it is. It’s all good. If you ain’t liked me before you ain’t got to start now, but just know that I’m the best.”
On how important it would be for him to collect all of the belts to become the undisputed champion at 140 given that he had already accomplished that at 147:
“ You know what, you kind of let my secret out of the bag. That is my goal. My goal is to become the first undisputed champion, to do it in two different weight classes twice. Nobody has ever done that in the world in the history of boxing. I’ve been studying. I looked way back. Nobody has ever done it. It looks like with a great win over Kaizer Mabuza, I should have the opportunity of being the first man to do that in history. If you look in the history books, there is nobody who ever won it twice in two different weight classes. So luckily with the will of God, that is one of my goals.”
His views on Timothy Bradley’s victory over Devon Alexander:
“Isn’t it beautiful that that’s a fight that just happened and that was supposed to be the biggest fight in the division, and you had a person in there with a bowling ball head and then you had another one in there pitty-patting. I didn’t know whether to get my bowling ball out and join the game or go get the cards and play pitty-pat. With that being said, if that’s the best guy in the weight division then I’m 100% excited and I’m 100% ready.”
On whether he was at all impressed by Bradley’s performance:
“Like I said, when I was looking at the fight I was just like I understand why people feel the way they feel about those guys. When I look at my style and I look at them guys’ styles, those guys are basic cable. I’m the new 3D TV. You got to have a special TV just to watch me.”
On whether he expects Mabuza to have any ring rust give the fact he will have been out of action for over a year by the time they fight:
“No, I think he’ll be ready. I think he’s trained very hard. I think he’s looking at this as a big opportunity for himself and his country. I think he’s coming in there not only fighting for himself, but he’s fighting for his country and he’s fighting for a place in history. So I expect the best Kaizer Mabuza.”
On what he believes is his biggest advantage against Mabuza:
“We got a solid game plan and I just think that me sticking to my game plan and listening to my trainer is going to make it exciting and phenomenal.”
On whether he would potentially be interested in a unification bout with Amir Khan should he be successful against Mabuza:
“Yeah, of course. I mean Amir Khan is another guy. Timothy Bradley is out there. Like I said, you guys know my goals. I want to unify the titles again. I take back what I said about Devon and Timothy. Sometimes I get ahead of myself before I think. I take it back. Devon and Timothy, they fought a good fight. They went in there and did what they did. Hey! I am looking forward to becoming the undisputed champion and not worried about which man should be there. It’s not about a principle or about a person. It is about the event happening and I’m excited for that. So it doesn’t matter if it’s Amir Khan or Timothy Bradley. Those are the two guys that are on the radar, but right now Kaizer Mabuza is number one and there is no looking past nothing. I didn’t even watch the fight Saturday. No disrespect to the fighters. You know what I’m saying. I didn’t watch it live. I watched it recorded. I was actually doing something, but I didn’t watch it live because I didn’t want to focus on something that was going to happen down the line. I’m not looking forward to that. I’m looking forward to Kazier Mabuza.”
On whether he ever sees himself moving back to 147 pounds for any reason:
“I don’t know. I mean of course with the right fight, with the right fight that makes sense of course I would consider going to 147 pounds. Right now, like I said, the only thing on my mind right now—excuse my attitude today. Sometimes I get like that. For those that know me, they know me. To know me is to love me and if you don’t know me, then I don’t know. It’s okay, but this division is one of the most smoking, hottest divisions in boxing right now. I don’t think the welterweight division or any other division compares with it.”
On whether he believes Lucas Matthysse was good preparation for his title shot:
“Well what he just did to a former champion of the world, in DeMarcus Corley, what he just did was knocked him down eight times in eight rounds. That’s every round he could have dropped him if you look at it and spread it out on the points system. With him being a former champion, and I fought DeMarcus Corley. DeMarcus Corley is not a soft fighter. I mean he hurt Mayweather. He took me twelve rounds. I broke my hand on him in the third round when I dropped him. But this shows a lot about Lucas Matthysse, because it shows that the guy is what Zab said he was. Zab came in there and fought the guy and after in an interview he said how strong he was. Then he turns around and knocks this guy down eight times. I mean come on, guys! When are people going to start realizing I really know what I’m doing, I really know what I’m doing and when I focus in I can really get busy.”
On whether he believes we will ever see Floyd Mayweather Junior return to the ring given his recent troubles outside the ring:
“(laughs) That’s funny. I had seen Floyd yesterday and I said, ‘What’s up champ? Are you going to get back in there?’ He said no. He told me he’s finished. He said he was just going to chill. He’s thinking about taking a two year break and I mean listen. The man worked hard for a long time. He maintained an undefeated record and he maintained a great position in the game of boxing. Well I look at that like, ‘Listen champ, you’re going to lay off and I’m going to pick up’ and that’s it. He’s going to fall back. We’re going to pick up the marbles and keep it moving. That’s it.”
His views on Manny Pacquiao as a fighter:
“I think it will be a great fight. I think that will be great. Pac-Man right now, he’s got the game by storm right now. He’s got the world’s eyes. He’s got the world’s attention. Bob Arum put together a great strategy plan for him as a promoter. He went in there and picked the right fights and the right designed things for him, and he’s moving on and starting to fill the fantasies. Right now he’s got the game on lock, Pacquiao.
His views on the upcoming fight between Pacquiao and Shane Mosley:
“I mean hey, it’s a boxing match. The man who works the hardest, the man with the better skills, it’s going to pay off. It’s definitely going to be a good fight. I think this Kaizer Mabuza-Zab Judah fight is going to be worth the world checking out. You’re going to get to see. I mean I got a new pair of legs guys. My defense is, oh my God! It’s going to be fun guys. I just don’t want anyone to miss it. You got to understand I’m far from cocky. I’m a very modest humble person, but my confidence is through the roof right now. I got one person to blame for that, my trainer Pernell Whitaker. You know what I’m saying. He came in there and he just showed me a lot of great things and reminded me. For those of ya’ll who remember Pernell Whitaker, he was no joke. I mean he was one of the baddest defensive fighters in the world. So with that coming into my party now, I think we’re going to have some fun guys.”
On how he feels he would fare in a fight against Pacquiao:
“I don’t know. It would be an interesting fight because we’re both left-handed. But after Kaizer Mabuza I can make more elaborations on that because my style right now is not focused on left-handers. My style is focused on fighting right-handers, coming forward, throwing a lot of punches, and working his butt off. So that’s the kind of style I’m working on breaking down right now.”
His official prediction for his upcoming fight against Mabuza:
“My official prediction for March 5 Zab Judah versus Kaizer Mabuza is don’t miss it live on pay-per-view because you’re not going to know what happens if you don’t see it. It’s not like football or basketball. You don’t want to see the play-by-play.”
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For those interested in listening to the Zab Judah interview in its entirety, it begins approximately one hour and forty-six minutes into the program.
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