Zab Judah loses his cool after taunts from champ Danny Garcia’s father, starts lengthy skirmish
Zab Judah should know better than this. Judah has been a professional boxer since 1996 and has been involved in countless major fights. He's met the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Miguel Cotto and Kostya Tszyu, among others.
He's been among the most talented fighters in the game for nearly all of that time, but he's never been the strongest fighter mentally.
That problem showed itself again on Saturday when Judah couldn't keep his composure at a news conference in New York to announce his Feb. 9 fight on Showtime with WBA/WBC super welterweight champion Danny "Swift" Garcia at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Garcia's father, Angel, is one of boxing's most notorious trash talkers in the sport. When Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer introduced Angel Garcia, he bemusedly said, "You never know what he's going to say."
Well, yes you do, Richard. You know he's going to question his opponent's toughness, his skills, his desire and pretty much everything there is to question.
Angel Garcia proceeded to do what he always does when he got to the podium. He began trashing Judah, who was seated immediately to his left. None of it seemed too serious until all of a sudden, Judah decided he'd had enough.
He stood up and confronted Angel Garcia, who had been taunting Judah about his 2001 loss to Tszyu. To say a brawl broke out would be incorrect, because no punches were thrown. But there was a lot of pushing, shoving, shouting, cursing and threatening going on.
Throughout the approximately 10-minute ruckus, publicist Kelly Swanson could be heard repeatedly shouting "Stop! Stop!" Schaefer tried to restore order by telling those involved they wouldn't get their steaks if they didn't sit down.
Order was restored after about 10 minutes and Schaefer gave the microphone to the usually mild-mannered Danny Garcia.
Apparently feeling that Judah disrespected his father, Danny Garcia shouted "I'm going to lay you out." He also said,"I'm going to punish him. I'm going for the knockout. This is not going past four rounds."
