Zab Judah. Controversial Ending. You Don’t Say.
August 3, 2008 by Michael Sedor
Filed under MMA-UFC
Last night on HBO welterweight Zab Judah added yet another disgraceful end to his litany of dubiousness. After impressively standing toe to toe with powerful Ghanian Joshua Clottey for eight rounds a cut was opened over Judah’s right eye in the ninth.
How that cut manifested itself became an object of contention. Multiple replays indicated that the cut was opened by a Clottey uppercut. Nevertheless the referee judged it to be caused by a head butt. While being examined by the ref Judah appeared to get the “how many fingers do I have up?” question wrong.
I’m no doctor and I can’t attest to Judah’s vision problems but the cut didn’t appear to be particularly debilitating.
It certainly seemed that Judah thought he was ahead on the cards and when given the head-butt out he decided to quit. Post-fight Judah raised his arms as if he had won, denied that a punch caused the cut despite clear evidence to the contrary, admitted that he thought he was ahead on the cards, and crowned himself the people’s champ.
The most damning evidence for Super Judah came next when HBO announcer Max Kellerman interviewed the ringside doctor. In his recap of the situation he said that Zab told him he couldn’t see. After removing the blood the doctor judged that Zab could fight but Judah still insisted that he could not see.
The doctor didn’t outright say that Zab was lying but his tone was so incredulous that Kellerman asked him “It sounds like you don’t believe him?” We don’t believe Judah either.
Which is a shame. He is as talented an American welterweight as we’ve seen in the last fifteen years and he looked especially determined in the first eight rounds last night.
How many more chances is Zab going to get? Probably a few more even though he is only 2-4 (with one no contest) over the last three years.
The Clottey bout showed that he remains a popular draw and is still a good, if not great, fighter. It’s doubtful that he’ll be headlining a pay-per-view as he was supposed to with Shane Mosley but this won’t be his last HBO appearance.
We can’t wait to see what sort of controversial ending he can make happen next time.
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