Curry v. Judah

[APBAgreat]

(2)Donald Curry 34-6 (25) v. Zab Judah 36-6 (25)

August 23, 2008
Philadelphia Municipal Stadium
Philadelphia, PA

Anselmo believed Curry would be able to overcome Judah’s slight advantage in foot and hand speed by being able to cut off the ring with his boxing skill and superior punching power. While Mr. Anselmo’s predicted that Judah would certainly get in some good punches, the majority would be out of range, or deflected by the even tempered Curry. In the end the ring generalmanship and overall excellent tactical and deliberate boxing abilities would win the day with a mid-to-late round KO.
Curry gets in the first blow of the bout with a nice short hook. Judah quickly retaliates with straight right hand that clearly hurts Curry. Curry re-cooperates quickly and fires a solid hook to Judah’s head. Judah slightly wobbles into a clinch. Curry rapidly and vicious bangs Judah’s body while Judah holds on for survival. Referee Pat Russell pries Judah from Curry and wasting no time, Curry lands a rattling uppercut. Judah resorts to retreating tactics that succeed in frustrating Curry. Suddenly Judah stops and surprises Curry with a quick hook that bloodies Curry’s mouth. The fighter’s exchange a flurry at the bell ending a hard fought opening round that for the most part went Donald Curry’s way.

Big George Mitchell stems the bleeding from Curry’s lip between rounds. Judah spends the 2nd round backpedaling and picking his spots to fight. While the strategy mitigates Curry’s ability to hurt Judah, Curry still is getting the edge in the exchanges in the early going with fine combination punching. In the beginning of the 2nd minute Judah lands a left hook flush to the jaw. Curry attempts to hide behind a highly held tight guard in order to gather himself. Judah’s big shot slows Curry down enough for Judah to shade the round.

In the 3rd heat Judah tries to potshot and succeeds in getting the blood to flow again from Curry’s mouth. Judah is tiring to use the ring and clinching when Curry moves him toward the ropes. Russell warns Judah for rabbit punching in the clinches. Curry manages to land a couple of power shots and pushes Judah around when in close displaying his superior strength.

Judah utilizes his jab early in the 4th. His jab is fast and accurate but when he relies on it a bit too much he gets walloped by a hard right cross counter. Judah stumbles into his own corner and manages to stymie Curry’s attack with a clinch. Judah then changes up his attack with some well placed body shots while continuing to tie up Curry making Pat Russell work hard to pry apart the clinches. Donald Curry also displays his defensive abilities picking off several of Judah blows.

Curry attempts to step up the pressure causing Judah to go on the retreat. Curry lands a sweet uppercut that sends Judah reeling into the ropes. With Curry on the pursuit Judah slides across the ropes trying to find sanctuary in the corners. Curry lands an uppercut to the groin that sends Judah to the floor grimacing in pain. Russell deducts a point from Curry for the brutal foul and let’s Judah take his time to re-cooperate. Once the fight commences Curry again begins his pursuit chasing Judah and throwing power punches that miss mostly. Curry appears winded near the end of the round and Judah uses Curry’s fatigue to his advantage trying to lean on Curry’s back and neck in the clinches. These tactics eventually generate a warning from the ref. In large part it was a round that saw little to no offense from Judah.

Between rounds Yoel Judah implores his son to pick up his attack and at the bell Zab shows his father he’s an attentive son. For the first time in the bout Judah sustains a prolonged attack once a gain bloodying Curry to the extent that the blood was being sprayed like sweat when Curry was hit causing Russell to summon the ringside physician to examine him. After the medical interlude Judah picked up where he left off landing a cracking right hand. Judah’s enjoys his best round of the contest.

Yoel Judah was delighted that his son followed his instructions and enjoyed success in doing so. In Curry’s corner Big George was busily working on Curry’s wound and nicely sent him out in the 7th with no bleeding. Curry now was paying more attention to the defensive side of his game as his trainer, Pop Anderson advised him that more bleeding might result in a TKO. Curry now was moving his head and bobbing and weaving. With more defensive emphasis Judah was able to dodge and block more blows with success. Judah was targeting Curry’s mouth throwing the jab like a machine gun. Curry adroitly took a couple ducked under one and brought a big uppercut right down main street. Judah’s defensive skills were still sharp enough to quickly get him out of harm’s way, preventing Curry from following up on his big punch. Judah once again returned to the jab with more caution.

In the 8th Judah came out of his corner flying pinning Curry against the far ropes landing a hard three-punch combo. Curry was now surprised and hurt. Judah continued his assault connecting with sharp left hook to the cheek. This time it was Judah who landed the low blow, which saved Curry from possibly being knocked down or even, out. Once they engaged again Judah was back on the attack with emphasis on body blows. Then Judah landed a well-timed uppercut that dumped Curry into the ropes. In his excitement Judah began to miss power punches evidently designed to end the proceeding. Curry fought his way out of danger with a tremendous right just above Judah’s waistband. Judah was forced to hold on. Curry now went on the counterattack stunning Judah with a solid hook. Judah dug deep and began to fight back in some spirited infighting. At the bell swelling was evident under Curry’s left eye.

Curry opened the 9th with a blistering body attack. Judah got on his horse and began to run for cover. Curry was landing hooks and crosses with a liver shot buckling Judah’s knees. Judah tried to fire back but his punches lacked any juice. Midway through the stanza Curry unleashed a crippling right hand to the head. Curry chased Judah into a neutral corner and landed a combination followed by a chopping right flush to the face. Judah somehow managed to escape and staggered backwards towards his corner. The crowd rose to its feet sensing a KO. Curry chased and Judah engaged him in a furious exchange on the ropes stunning Curry and the jumping into a clinch that drove him across the ring. Russell broke it up at the sound of the bell.

Judah’s corner team worked furiously on him hoping to resuscitate him back into condition to last the next heat. Pop Anderson in the meantime in Curry’s corner issued the instructions to end the fight. At the gong Curry began to try and walk Judah down. Somehow Judah had enough of his wits and superlative physical skills to cause Curry to miss by the narrowest of margins. Judah then fired several flurries that winded up pinning Curry to the ropes. On the ropes Curry regrouped against the fatigued Judah managing to block his blows and catch punches with his arms while using a variety of angles to make Judah not only miss… but exhaust himself in the process. Judah moved to ring center and Judah walked into a wicked combination sending him to the deck. Russell reached a count of 6 when Judah pulled himself to his feet with great exertion. With the North American Boxing Federation rules in force Russell gave Judah the standing 8 count. Judah immediately was greeted with a hard left hook but then backpedaled and managed to duck away from an assortment of lefts and rights. Finally Curry found Judah’s head with a brutal hook putting Zab down for a 2nd time in the round…this time for a count of 8. The action then resumed with Judah utilizing subtle movement and a tight guard to frustrate Curry as he vainly tried to put Judah away. However, there was too much time on the clock and not enough gas in Judah’s tank to allow him to have the energy to evade Curry’s relentless pursuit. Judah revisited the canvass after Curry connected with a brutal hook to the nose that put him down for a 9 count. As Russell examined Judah his corner threw in the towel at the 2:55 mark ending matters before Zab needlessly absorbed further punishment.

Philip Anselmo to his credit called the outcome correctly with his prediction of a late round KO. It was an exciting battle featuring two talented ring warriors who definitely give the audience more than their monies worth. Both men can only be commended on their wealth of boxing talent.