Spinks – Judah Should Surprise and Entertain

It’d be a little crazy to come out and brazenly pick the winner of this fight knowing what we do, that it all depends on which fighter shows up.

Instead, maybe we should try that quick, simple procedure for picking winners. We’ll flip a coin and see how it lands. Heads for the unpredictable, temperamental Zab Judah, tails for the consistent Cory Spinks. Or we can go the other way, heads for Spinks, tails for Judah.

Maybe we should draw straws, or do that rock, paper, scissors thing. Or maybe we should just try that much maligned, always reliable, high-tech method of selection known as the eenie-meenie-miney-moe process of elimination.

Point and pick.

Works for me.

That way, no one can accuse us of showing favoritism, because this fight could spit out more drama in 12 rounds than a soap opera can do in a month.

When Judah (32-2-1, 23 KOs) and Spinks (34-2, 11 KOs) fight their rematch on Feb. 5 in St. Louis for Spinks‘ world welterweight titles, be ready to be surprised and entertained. Expect fireworks, controversy, confrontation, accusation and petty jealousy. After all, Don King is promoting this thing.

Then get ready to sit down and watch a good fight.

The first time these two guys met, Spinks won a close fight that wasn’t really that close heading into the final rounds, especially after Spinks dropped Judah in the 11th round with a short left.

But then Judah caught Spinks being a little careless in the last 30 seconds of the fight, sending the undisputed welterweight champ sprawling to the canvas with one of those “see-ya-later, pal” punches that usually make it a short night.

Spinks, momentarily lost somewhere on the other side of the rainbow, somehow managed to hang on for the final seconds and escape with just a scare and his title still intact.

“If the fight had lasted one more minute, I would be the undisputed welterweight champion,” Judah claimed after the first fight.

Good, Zab. Of course, if the fight would have been for 10 rounds instead of 12, none of this would matter. If Zab hadn’t lost most of the early rounds, he wouldn’t have needed a knockout. If Judah wasn’t a fighter, he’d probably be parking cars in Brooklyn.

Judah has more gifts than most world-class fighters. He’s just not sure what to do with them. He’s like the child protégé who can play Mozart on the piano, but who would rather fool around with a banjo.

That’s Zab Judah. Blessed and cursed, great and then confused. His only losses were to Spinks this past April and to Kostya Tszyu in 2001, yet he doesn’t always fight up to his potential, and that’s a tough label to lose.

As for Spinks, he hasn’t knocked a lot of guys out, but he usually finds a way to win.

If Judah doesn’t always seem to live up to expectations, Spinks always seems to surpass them. He’s boxing’s pleasant surprise, a nice, polite guy who always fights just well enough to win.

Judah is an enigma, and that’s a tough thing to bet on.

So who wins this fight the second time around? – The solid, consistent, dependable Spinks? – Or the gifted, wild, fickle Judah?

My coin says tails. Of course, it depends on who shows up.