NEWARK – Kathy Duva of Main Events informed TQBR Saturday that the proposed 140-pound showdown between Zab “Super” Judah and Juan Manuel Marquez would headline an HBO pay-per-view on either July 30 or August 6.
“(Richard Schaefer) is going to meet with Marquez to straighten out his stuff,” Duva said of the Golden Boy Promotions CEO. “I said to him, ‘If you can deliver Marquez, I want to make this fight.’ (Schaefer) wants to make the fight and HBO wants to make the fight for pay-per-view.”
“Zab called out Marquez, we got through to him, Marquez is tweeting that he wants the fight, I think he’s invested in the fight now, HBO wants it, Golden Boy wants it, I want it, we all want it.”
Judah is coming off two big wins at 140 – he defeated Argentine power-puncher Lucas Matthysse on HBO in November and then followed that up with a scintillating 7th round knockout over previously Ring rated Kaiser Mabuza of South Africa.
Marquez, a top-5 pound-for-pound fighter, knocked out Michael Katsidis in his last fight and would move up to 140 for the match, a division he has never fought in, though he once fought at welterweight, a lopsided loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Judah, now trained by the legendary Pernell Whitaker, would stake his claim to the pound-for-pound list with a victory in the summer showdown.
Whitaker, who has only been with Judah for one fight, surprisingly doesn’t watch boxing outside of his training duties, so he queried Duva on Marquez.
“We said to him, well it’s this guy Marquez, and (Whitaker) goes, ‘Well what’s he like?’” said Duva. “‘Oh, he’s Mexican? No problem.’”
Mike Coppinger is a regular contributor to Ring Magazine in addition to freelancing for USA TODAY. He is a member of the BWAA, the Ring Ratings Advisory Panel and the Yahoo! Sports Boxing Panel. Write to him at mikecoppinger@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeCoppinger.
