Kaizer Mabuza: “I’m glad to be back in America. It’s an honor to me to fight a person like Zab Judah. I think he had his time; he’s a former world champion. I think this is my time, because I’m still hungry for success. And I promise him, when I take the ring I change, I become a new man. I’m hungry for success so you have to expect that it will be like fireworks!”
Zab Judah: “Pernell has been a great influence. I think we are going to Def Comedy Jam after this! Not only has Pernell Whitaker brought great skills to me, but he tweaked my whole world. He also brought humor, entertainment and kept the camp happy. He brought a lot of excitement, joy and fun. We had a great training camp in Las Vegas. We trained very, very hard for this fight. He came in for a six weeks of training camp, but I’d been training myself long before that. I kind of skipped Christmas and New Years and focused on Kaizer Mabuza. I kept my mind focused on the plan. I mean, I’m ready.”
“In the past I have predicted rounds, knockouts, etc, etc. This fight I prepared myself for twelve rounds. I’ve prepared myself for 100%. You know there’s a myth about Zab’s gonna fade and all that. For this fight, I went to the master right here (Pernell Whitaker). He’s known for going 12 rounds; he’s known for being the best fighter out there. His defensive skills are phenomenal, his offensive skills are phenomenal. I took what he’s got and put it with what I’ve got and ya’ll know what that’s gonna bring. It’s gonna be magic.”
“As a young kid I mimicked and idolized Pernell Whitaker coming up, and watched him and Mike Tyson. Those two styles are different. You got one deep to the body, you got one aggressive fighter, so I mixed the both of them in and I got Zab Judah.”
“I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for bringing me here. I respect Kaizer Mabuza for what he’s done and his climb to the top. Me and my trainers, we’ve prepared ourselves well for this opportunity. He’s a young man here (Mabuza), he has a lot of time to come back and try to do this again, but this Saturday night is not his time. I respect him for coming over and taking this opportunity, but Saturday night you will see a five time champion of the world!”
“Americans are missing one thing – they’re missing an American hero, and I’m here to take over that spot.”
Kathy Duva, speaking about the undercard: “We are moving into a new room at Prudential Center, a fabulous space that is going to be an intimate boxing club that we intend to continue using as time goes on. Starting out, we have not only a card that includes a big world title fight, but also a lot of young fighters that you’re going to see again and again. What we’re going to see on Saturday night are some people who are going to be the future world champions, people that you’re going to look back one day and say, ‘Yeah, I saw his pro debut, I saw him in his fifth or tenth fight.’ That’s the type of fights we are bringing here.”
“On the undercard we have Jose Peralta of Jersey City, who upset Steven Martinez in his last fight. Making a fight for this fighter (Peralta) has been particularly trying for Jolene (Mizzone) and Russell Peltz, our matchmakers, because 5 opponents have backed out on this fellow and that is a testament to how good he must be.”
“We have a gentleman who’s kind of in the same position Zab was in, “Marvelous” Tarvis Simms. He wants to get back on top, wants to fight his way back into the rankings and is hopefully gonna follow the same pattern and get there. He is 26-1-1, with 11KO’s. This is his first fight at 160 pounds in over 2 years. He intends to challenge in the middleweight tournament hopefully by the end of this year, and no later than the beginning of next year.”
“Sadam Ali has fought at Prudential Center 7 times. He’s a former 2008 Olympian. He will be fighting in his toughest fight to date against Juliano Ramos of Brazil, who has fought Mike Jones and Kermit Cintron, so this is definitely a step up in class.”
“On the card we also have Shemuel Pagan of Brooklyn, who made his pro debut with us and made quite an impression in a really exciting fight. He is a former NY Golden Gloves Champion.”
“Another Brooklynite on the card is Chris Crosby. He is Zab’s brother, he is 5-1, and he will be fighting his second pro fight.”
“Making his pro debut will be Vinny O’Brien from East Hanover, NJ. He has been making quite a stir. He is managed by Lou Esa, a gentleman who fought in Ice World many years ago.”
FIGHT INFO: The fight promoted by Main Events and Super Judah Promotions will take place on March 5th at Prudential Center’s AmeriHealth Pavilion, Newark, NJ. Doors open at 7:30pm, First fight 8:00pm. Tickets priced at $253 Ringside, $103 Reserved seating on floor, $88 General Admission in Bleachers and $53 GA Standing Room on floor. Tickets available at Prudential Center Box Office, by calling TicketMaster at 800-745-3000 or www.Prucenter.com
Judah vs. Mabuza will be distributed in North American by Integrated Sports Media for live viewing at 9 PM/ET 6 PM/PT on both cable and satellite pay per view via iN Demand, DIRECTV, Avail-TVN and DISH Network in the United States, as well as Viewer’s Choice and Bell TV in Canada, for a suggested retail price of only $29.95.
Available as an Ustream online PPV exclusive, the live video broadcast of the fight will be offered for $29.95 in U.S. / Canada at http://www.ustream.tv/brickcityboxingUSA and $4.95 Worldwide at http://www.ustream.tv/brickcityboxinginternational.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
