was lucas matthyse as bad as most made him out to be? to judah's credit, i guess he beat a guy who was unbeaten and now sets him up for a title shot in the near future.
I agree with average speed, he dropped Zab with a right that Judah would have not gotten hit with several years ago. The guy is a tough club fighter bro, nothing more and nothing less if he can't beat an over the hill former champion like Judah, who pulled it altogether one last time and boxed and slid his way to victory versus a slow, albeit, heavy handed foe tonight.
Shameful decision. very close fight up until the 10th, where Judah was getting the shit kicked out of him.
I guess it depends on how many early rounds you scored for Zab, though I can't imagine that he deserved to win seven out of the first nine. I had Matthysse winning 115-112, can see it maybe one round closer. I think I gave him the 3rd, 4th, 6th... and one more round heading into the 10th, then scored the final three for him, including 10-8 for the 10th.
Judah should thank his lucky stars for that win, he definately took the bigger beating and was really close to finishing the fight on his back.
They gave that decision to Judah? WTF !!! I didn't even watch the decision because I was sure Mathysse won. I was rooting for Judah, but after he was knocked down and then bludgeoned for two additional rounds, I was sure he had no chance. I thought the only way he could win that fight was with a knock-out. Wow.
Funny, but I TIVO'd the fights and apparently they ran long because the recording ended right before the decision was announced. I went to bed and didn't even check to see who won because I was absolutely sure that Mathysse won. I wouldn't call it robbery but I was shocked that Judah still got the nod.
It is sort of baffling how fighters often end up in this "new attitude" phase where they insist they are really training hard (and did not in the past), they shouldn't have moved up, they have cleaned up their lives, and they often cut weight and physically look decent. Remember Chris Byrd's conquest of 175? Then they inevitably come in worse than when they apparently were fighting out of their best weight and indulged in all sorts of terrible habits. Zab Judah may have had the fastest straight left hand I've ever seen, and catching Floyd Mayweather with it puts an exclamation point on that. Clearly he has slowed down, although not enormously, and still seems relatively fast. But what shocked me was that from the very outset of the fight, Zab was not engaging offensively. That left hand? What, did he throw it 2 times a round maybe? It was like each time he threw it, it cost him $100,000. If you count a combination as 3 or more punches put together, I would be surprised if he threw even one per round. Somehow Zab's camp has convinced him that being even LESS busy than he was before is somehow better. Zab should be jabbing consistently, yes, but with the sole intent of setting up the left hand. It's his money punch. Yet despite throwing and landing a respectable number of jabs, he virtually never threw the straight left. When he did, he almost always either connected or at least set up a chance for more offense. I blame Yoel Judah. His corner advice is always the same - he takes 2 steps back from the stool to give himself room to punch - then he bursts out hurried syllables that are hard to understand while he flails around in front of Zab. Usually it sounds something like "You get out an you go ... bambambam!.. and over and bam!". Zab never listens or even acknowledges, and he never changes what he is doing to even try whatever it is his dad is trying to tell him. If camp is like that, I guess I understand why Judah has actually gone away from all of this strengths style-wise despite apparently being disciplined in physical training this time around. If Zab is truly serious about one more run at things, he needs to realize that he will not win fights against the division's best by being defensive minded and pumping the jab a lot. In fact, with his chin, he may not even get to then end of those fights. He needs to constantly be setting up fast power shots, which then either hurt his opponent or at the very least will keep a pressure guy off of him so he can fight at his pace and create offense off the jab or on counters. Ripping to the body every now and then wouldn't kill him either. But the key is OFFENSE. I'd say either bring in a new trainer or stop now. The way he is fighting now, he basically just lost (though not technically of course) a decision to a C+ fighter who was slow and moderately uncoordinated, and in the process was extremely close to being embarrassingly TKO'd. Matthysse was not terrible, and I would not call him a bum, but he is at least few years from being a true contender IMO, if ever.
I agree. Yoel Judah seems like a terrible trainer, and even if he isn't, he's clearly too involved emotionally when his son fights to give him level-headed advice. I think Judah thought he'd be able to either hurt Mathysse with one shot, or be able to easily win rounds against him. As it turns out, he couldn't do either. I do think it will become clear with time that Mathysse has an extraordinary chin, and he obviously does hit hard. He could be better than we think - it's hard to say. I think Judah depends on the ability to hurt his opponent badly. When he can't do that, he's basically lucky to survive.
This fight was pretty boring but the decision was much worse. Judah absolutely didn't deserve it because the way he was fighting most of the last rds was not worthy of rd winning. He was more fighting to survive seeming to want to prevent any engagement while it was Matthysse who was throwing hard and coming forward with intent. Before Judah got dropped I already saw it was coming because he had already resided the loss to himself and had basically given up. I know that look from Judah and it was all over his face. In all honesty I thought from the very begining Zab seemed to be fighting like he didn't believe he would win. He seemed totally underconfident and I always wonder why does Zab seem to be at his best against fighters he has no chance of beating (Clottey, Mayweather) yet against guys he should destroy (Matthysse, Baldomir) he comes in looking a lot less sharp. Had this been the Judah that fought Clottey or Floyd he would have easily won. The worse thing is this BS win sets us up for another Judah farce where they'll match him up against someone like Bradley or Alexander and Judah will come in looking like shit and have the mentality that he can't win allowing the fight to play out in exactly that manner. Bottom line, I'm tired of this guy.
Judah got very lucky... and his dad is and always has been a horrendous trainer "you gots ta get up in there like BAP!BAP!BAP!BAP!BAP!BAP! and like POW!POW!POW!POW!POW!... you feel me, yo?" It's like being trained by T.I.
Who was the guy who trained Joppy? Joppy is getting floored and beaten up and his trainer says to him in the corner...."Gotta get tough now" :scratcher:
Was it Adrian something? He was also the guy who told Rahman to throw his hands up anytime Lewis went to punch, which accounted directly for the opening Lewis found with the looping right hand.
Jesus christ, yeah that drives me crazy since day 1. He's also showing him the punching, just throwing slappy left right combos in front of his face... :blackcloud: