ZAB JUDAH vs JOSHUA CLOTTEY

Last Saturday in Las Vegas we had a classic welterweight title fight when Antonio Margarito overpowered Miguel Cotto. This Saturday’s welterweight title fight between Zab Judah and Judah Clottey on HBO from The Palms casino hotel, Las Vegas, isn’t such a compelling contest but it does contain intrigue, mainly centred on Judah and how he will perform.

“Super” Zab can be dynamic and even devastating on his best night but in several fights he has been disappointing. Clottey is a steady, industrious sort. He isn’t as fast as Judah and cannot match him for punching power, but he is considered the steadier and more reliable of the two.

I previewed this fight for espn.com earlier in the week so these are just some additional thoughts as the bout draws nearer.

Clottey started as a favourite and has remained one. I think there is a perception of Judah as a spent fighter, and certainly he was not impressive in his last two fights although of course he might have lacked motivation.

At his best, though, Judah is an outstanding fighter. He has scored some thrilling victories, especially when he wrecked Cory Spinks in their rematch. For four rounds, Judah was beating Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Zab’s big problem has been maintaining his concentration and intensity throughout the course of a fight. He faded in the later rounds against Mayweather and Carlos Baldomir, similarly against Rafael Pineda when, after scoring a heavy knockdown in the seventh round, he lost the next five rounds on one judge’s card and four of the next five on another card: the 38-year-old Colombian was chasing him around the ring at the end.

In the thriller with Cotto it was more of the same, with Judah scorching hot in the early rounds, then getting broken down although getting hit low didn’t help matters.

As I noted in the espn preview, Judah is now a veteran, fighting for his career. This, I think, will make him very dangerous. People who have seen him training in Las Vegas have been impressed.

For the 31-year-old Clottey, this is his second chance to become champion and if he loses he might not get another opportunity, so in a sense it is now or never.

Clottey is best known for his respectable losing effort against Margarito, when he won the early rounds but, handicapped by a broken left hand, was outfought and outworked from the fifth onwards. Margarito, though, was probably not at his best that night, having struggled with an ankle injury during training. Still, even a slightly off-form Margarito is a rough handful, and I think that Clottey enhanced his reputation that night even though he lost.

Since then Clottey has won four bouts and I thought he looked very sharp in his last fight when he beat up the normally resilient Jose Luis Cruz in five rounds.

Clottey’s tactics are not a secret. He will be moving in with his gloves up and looking to block Judah’s punches, then whip in his own. This simple strategy has worked well enough for Clottey. He doesn’t have Judah’s razzle-dazzle, but Clottey is capable of getting off with fast bursts of punches.

I am expecting Judah to be in charge of the fight in the early stages. His movement and hard, fast punching from out of his southpaw stance could have Clottey struggling to keep up with him. I think that Judah is going to be banging to the body, under and around Clottey’s elbows, and his quick feints with head and shoulders could get the Ghanaian flustered and leave him open for hard shots upstairs.

It is up to Clottey to show his mettle, to dig in and let his own punches go. If Judah catches the eye with a sizzling sequence of punches, it is up to Clottey to answer right back. I think he is capable of doing this. Clottey’s left hooks to the body can be effective in slowing down Judah, but he will have to be careful about Judah’s straight left hand through the middle and southpaw right hook.

If Clottey can at least stay in the fight and get in his share of punches in the first five or six rounds he should, I think, be able to come on quite strongly in the second half of the contest — that is, if the fight runs true to form. In boxing, you just never know.

Judah’s southpaw stance could be a factor, because Clottey didn’t have a particularly impressive night against the left-hander Shamone Alvarez. Then again, Clottey’s style of putting pressure on an opponent from behind his high guard and throwing a high volume of punches could be a problem for Judah.

I give Judah a great chance and I do not make Clottey a very big favourite. Still, I will go for Clottey to win. I think that despite his long career and being a year older than Judah that in fact he is the fresher fighter. Judah took a lot of punishment from Cotto and that sort of fight can take something out of a boxer. In what looks like being a long, hard fight I like Clottey’s greater consistency to earn him a narrow win on points.