By: Ricky Ray Taylor
When all was said and done in Newark, NJ this past weekend, many walked out of the arena with more questions about the two headliners than confirmations. Even though we weren’t dazzled by their brilliance in the ring, the upward bound prospect in ALEX PEREZ along with the flashy veteran ZAB JUDAH did the best they could with what was delivered them.
Perez made his way back to the states with a warm welcome by his fans after polishing off a journeyman in D.R. last month (Josalito Rosario, TKO 2). Yet, his chances of wowing the ESPN audience by up-ending veteran EDVAN BARROS never surfaced. The southpaw Perez was unable to utilize his reach advantage due to the in-your-face, bullying style of Barros. The close proximity to Perez that Barros was determined to utilize made the fight as lopsided as it was ugly. It became obvious after 2 rounds that Perez was in no danger of being handed his first loss. Nonetheless, Barros made sure his victory was going to be hard earned.
One judge saw it as I did by granting Perez every round while the other two had the fight relatively close (78-74, 77-75).
In any event, Perez walked away with a UD while leaving his Newark fan base still salivating for someone to get excited about.
Zab Judah simply did what was expected of him. Yet, Zab doing what is expected sometimes speaks volumes to those still haunted by Baldomir and Spinks II. There was a time when defeating JOSE SANTA CRUZ could have been a ticket to a PPV World-Title fight or quite possibly a notch UP the P4P rankings. Those days are about 5 years old now and the Santa Cruz that Judah disposed of was most likely a shell of who he once was as a contender. (The left-uppercut KO was classic though!)
Let’s not allow the inability of Santa Cruz to erase Zab Judah’s rebirth as a seasoned veteran in the Junior Welterweight division however. During the Press Conference I asked Zab if he thought that he was the best Junior Welterweight in the world “right now”. Without hesitating, he said that not only is he the best “Junior Welterweight” out there now – but that he is also the P4P best in the world. My follow up question of “which top ten Jr Welter are you better than” was quickly swallowed up and drowned out by his hyped up, frenzied entourage.
Judah then thanked Jesus Christ for giving him the victory and exclaimed that he is now punching at GOD-SPEED since “turning over a new leaf and re-dedicating his life to GOD .”
Was it all for show or are we witnessing the re-emergence of amore disciplined, SUPER-Zab?