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TOO CLOSE TO CALL By Jeff Mayweather |
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TOO CLOSE TO CALL By Jeff Mayweather |
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On Saturday night April
10,
2004, in Las Vegas, two very skilled fighters
will take center stage and battle for the Undisputed Welterweight Championship
of the World.
In one corner you have Corey Spinks coming off a spectacular
performance against wild-man Ricardo Mayorga, dethroning Mayorga and canceling
his already penciled in plans of fighting Shane Mosley.
In the other corner you
have former IBF Jr. Welterweight Champion Zab Judah, who is coming off a split decision
win over DeMarcus" Chop Chop" Corley; in his last outing he stopped unheralded
Jaime Rangel in the first round.
The Spinks-Judah fight could be very exciting or an all out
stinker. That really depends on Judah more than it does Spinks. Judah can be
explosive at times, he has extremely fast hands and above average punching power.
His Achilles heel is that to go with those pluses he has two major flaws that
can be exploited by a guy with Spinks' style. Judah's two setbacks are he doesn't have
the best chin and he can be very reckless with his attack, jumping in off both
feet, leaving himself vulnerable to a good counter puncher willing to take a chance
and having the timing to place the right shot on his fragile chin; it could spell his doom
early.
Fortunately for Judah, Spinks is not a good puncher but, if he catches
Judah jumping in with his feet off the ground, it will create the power he
lacks making it appear as though Spinks can punch. Spinks is a great counter
puncher and that could serve him well; although Spinks' hand speed is just
okay, his timing is exceptional and makes up for his lack of hand speed.
It boils
down to Judah's speed and power versus Spinks' sound defense and great timing. If
I had to pick a winner I would slightly lean toward Spinks because of his timing,
but Judah could very well win and win in impressive fashion via knockout. If he
jumps in and Spinks doesn't answer with a counter or he moves to the left when
he should have moved to the right and Judah's punch lands flesh on the chin it
could spell goodnight for Spinks. Or it could be one of those nights where you
have two good fighters with similar styles too busy looking for an opening and
not taking the chances needed to get the sparks flying. Either way it's too close
to call.
4-08-2004
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