Wife went to bed early so I thought I’d rewatch Khan Judah. Forthwith, some observations:
Key point early on: the ref clearly (like, clearly) points to the TOP of each fighter’s belt and says any punches below that will be called off.
There’s a lot of talk about handspeed and Lampley said Judah claims to have never been in the ring with a fighter with faster hands. He (Judah) said that he was faster than Mayweather over the first four rounds. Kellerman (during the third round I think) said that he hasn’t seen a Khan speed advantage yet.
Yet.
That’s a key Zab qualification from K and Zab himself. I agree that Zab looked to be Khan’s equal early, actually, but he slowed down at a much faster rate than Khan. He became hesitant.
From what I’ve read, the observation that Zab cedes the psychological game too easily isn’t a controversial one.
And that Khan reach! They look like they should be in different divisions.
As the fight progresses, Khan looks faster. He’s also got this ridiculous left hook (my favorite punch, generally) that is great as a third crack in a combination or a surprise lead.
Then there’s the 5th round body-blow KO. Incredibly, it might have been a Judah give-up; it didn’t look that bad. Mentally weak.
Here’s BLH and Dan Rafael. Generally, the commentariat seem to agree that the KO shot wasn’t a low blow and I suppose they’re probably right.
Still. The ref said that that exact shot would be disallowed. Probably means the refs should explain the rules a bit better if that wasn’t actually against the rules.
This is finally a fight where the old vet isn’t totally mailing it, KO controversy notwithstanding. And that’s probably because he’s fighting a hungry young fighter. I predict that Mayweather/Ortiz will be an excellent fight for this same reason. Ballsy of Floyd to take on a youngster.
They don’t mess around.
Not Unreasonable 