CASPER
New member
NEW YORK – Zab Judah was never really a bad guy, not in the way that some people tried to fashion him. The former undisputed welterweight champion was more like a prankster who didn't take things seriously, not even his considerable talent inside the ring.
There was the time he flung a stool across the ring after losing to Kostya Tszyu, and the yearlong suspension he earned after a low blow against Floyd Mayweather Jr. resulted in a near-melee. Or the time he snookered reporters by having his father take his place on a conference call before a fight against Miguel Cotto, unbeknownst to anybody, even the promoters.
"Life is about growing up. As you get older, you mature," Judah said recently. "I've been to the highest of highs, I've been to the lowest of lows."
Now he's trying to climb back to the top.
After spending most of the past two years away from boxing, Judah has returned to the sport with a more mature outlook. He reunited with longtime promoter Main Events, dotes on his son Zab Jr., and is back at junior welterweight with designs on winning yet another world title.
He fights unbeaten Lucas Matthysse on Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., where a victory could set up a lucrative title shot next year.
"At this point in my life, I just choose to walk a different path," Judah said. "I'm doing everything by the book, I'm doing everything I was asked to do in the past and didn't do. I'm walking the right path in my life."
The 33-year-old from Brooklyn oozes talent, nobody can dispute that. He went 110-5 as an amateur before turning professional in a small Miami convention center in 1996. He won 19 times over the next two years, then captured an interim world title with a fourth-round knockout.
