Jerry Glick reporting: Zab Judah is a Brooklyn bred fighter. Born and raised there, but in fact, he has never fought in his home town as a pro. That will all change when he steps into the ring on Main Event’s talent rich show at the borough’s storied former airbase, Floyd Bennett Field; the home of the venue for this show, The Aviator. He will face unbeaten Vernon Paris, 26-0 (15 KOs), March 24th, on NBC Sports Network in an IBF junior-welterweight eliminator to determine who will fight the winner of the Amir Khan-Lamont Peterson rematch.
Also scheduled to fight will be heavyweights Tomasz Adamek, and Siarhei Liakhovich, as well as rugged super-middleweight Curtis Stevens and crafty middleweight Tarvis Simms.
Zab, 41-7 (28 KOs), talked to the media by phone on Tuesday and said that he is not looking back at the Khan fight. That he has regrouped and is ready to beat, the young, 24 year old, Paris. At 34 Judah is ten years older and, he says, wiser. He added that he still feels young. “I’m excited again,” said Zab with youthful enthusiasm. “I’m 22 years old again and I promise that I will give you guys the excitement that I gave you guys when I was 22 years old.”
Still trained by the great Pernell Whitaker, Judah said that training is going well, “It’s going great. We have a lot of young undefeated professionals that I’m sparring with. I’m preparing myself as though I was fighting one of the greatest fighters.”
Boxing in Brooklyn for the first time will be a great opportunity for Judah. After 48 pro fight, he will finally box in his home town. “It’s the first time that I will be fighting in Brooklyn as a professional,” said Judah. “It’s a great feeling. The last time I fought in Brooklyn, New York was the Golden Glove.”
He insisted that the punch that ended his fight with Khan was not a legal a body shot, as the referee ruled, but a low blow. “How would anybody know what me and my testicles are going through?” asked Zab. “People make an assumption. It kind of hurts your feelings. You say I got hit with a low blow and they say it was a body shot. A body shot? First of all did you see my body? It was as hard as a brick. Khan is not a knockout puncher. It was a borderline low blow that jammed the cup up into my testicles. It bothers me when people say (these things). People who know me know that I have a heart like a lion.”
Judah understands the opportunity that his fight with Paris is providing him with. “This is an eliminator fight to get me back to where I should be and to where I need to be right now.”
Judah has come back from disaster before. He has the ability to re-invent himself; “to pick himself up, dust himself off and start all over again,” to paraphrase the late reggae singer Peter Tosh. Judah refuses to look back at losses and wants to focus on this fight and the future. This ability may very well be what allows him to keep going when others might become discouraged. A pretty good quality in any endeavor; probably more remarkable in a boxer.
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