Zab Judah Says, "50/50, No U.K. Rights…We Have a Fight"
By Steve Kim, MaxBoxing (May 27, 2011) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © Howard Schatz)
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As Tim Bradley passed on the
opportunity to face Amir Khan on July 23rd,
the search was on to find a replacement for the “Desert Storm.” Zab Judah,
who holds the IBF junior welterweight title, believed that he was the frontrunner
to land this fight. As of Wednesday, if you went by his Twitterpage (@SUPERJUDAH), he seemed hopeful
that he would indeed get a chance to unify his title with Khan, who holds the WBA
belt.
By Thursday afternoon,
his outlook wasn't nearly as positive.
He told Maxboxing, "I
feel like this; we're both champions. I feel like anything come down the line should
be 50/50. He was willing to give Timothy Bradley half, 50/50, just to fight him
but for some reason, they kept pushing the Bradley fight like hotcakes. Well,
what's the difference? I got a belt; I got a major world title belt- y' know
what I'm sayin'- in the same weight division. But for some reason, they want to
lowball me. They want to lowball me and short change me and say, 'Ah, no, no,
50/50.' I'm not asking for anything crazy."
It was reported that in the negotiations
with Bradley, Khan's side was willing to share half the proceeds of the money
coming in from England through television rights. However, Judah states, "They're
talking about foreign sales and all that; alright, keep all that bullsh*t. I just
want the American rights, 50/50, a regular split and that's it. You keep all
your U.K. bullsh*t. I want everyone to know this deal is not me. It's not me
that's not making this fight happen. I don't want nobody saying, 'Oh, Zab Judah don't want to fight Amir Khan.' Amir Khan can't beat me! He can't beat me! A
good Zab Judah, a bad Zab Judah, there's no way he can beat me- he can't! He
just came out of the Olympics a couple years ago. I turned professional at 18
years old. I've been doing this. I'm a five-time champ of the world. I don't
know what he's talking about. [To Khan] You're far from my level.
"His mouth done wrote a check his ass can't cash."
The others in contention to
land this fight are Robert
Guerrero and Erik Morales.
"They're using me for leverage with HBO to make HBO think that Zab Judah's
the one not making it happen," said the man who stopped Kaizer Mabuza to
win this IBF crown a couple of months back. "If they do a 50/50 split,
right now, I'll sign the contract- right now. I'm talking about right now! No
ifs, ands or buts about it. All I want is the 50/50 split. I'm not going to do
nothing else. I feel like I worked myself back up to get back to this position;
it's only right. He got a belt; I got a belt. If I was a contender, I'd take
60/40, 80/20, whatever, but right now, I worked myself back into the position
where 50/50 is good."
Judah just might be too
risky for Khan. For all his flaws, one thing he still possesses is the ability
to punch hard and fast. Khan's history of hitting the canvas is well known. In
Guerrero, they are facing a fighter who has never had a major fight above 135 pounds
and Morales is an older fighter who is long on guile but short on speed and
quickness. Guerrero and Morales would essentially be in-house promotions for Golden Boy Promotions and would probably come cheaper than
Judah would.
"They'd rather give
their fighters peanuts to fight each other, rather than going with a top-notch
fighter and putting the best fights on that boxing needs to see," said
Judah, who seems to be speaking for the fans on this issue. "See, that's
what's wrong with boxing these days. A lot of these fights are too
orchestrated; they need to stop all this orchestrated bullsh*t and let fighters
fight. Let fighters fight. This is the game that we in. Promoters, stop being
so greedy. They've made enough money, y' know? How much money are these
promoters going to make? The ball bounces from Golden Boy to Bob Arum, from Golden
Boy to Bob Arum. That's how the ball bounces. The ball bounces but two ways.
That's it. It's a one-way game played hundreds of times and it's not
fair."
When asked if there were any
updates on the Khan situation on Thursday,
Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer replied via email- "No news."
But Judah wants to make it
clear what will get a fight done between him and Khan.
"50/50, American rights
and you keep your U.K. bullsh*t. You can keep all the U.K. rights. You keep your
U.K. rights. All I want is 50/50 and let’s go to work," said the
born-again Christian, who went back to Brooklyn for this interview.
I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet at www.Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing.
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