Vegas Fight Card Cancelled: Zab Judah, Promoter Roy Englebrecht Face Disciplinary Action

Vegas Fight Card Cancelled – The fight card scheduled for tomorrow night – Saturday, March 12 – at the “D” in downtown Las Vegas has been cancelled. The main event of what was to be a six-fight card pitted Zab Judah, a former world champion in two weight classes, against little-known Josh Torres (15-4-2) of Albuquerque. The bout was to air on the CBS Sports network.

Derek Stevens, the majority owner of the “D,” issued a statement that read: “Last night (Thursday) I received multiple calls from the Nevada Athletic Commission regarding eligibility concerns. After our discussions, it became apparent the fight card could not move forward.”

Steve Carp, the boxing writer for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was quickly on the story and able to shed light on the cryptic message. According to Carp, Judah’s license application form contained false information. Specifically, it was stated that there were no financial liens against him when he actually owed back child support. According to Carp, when the deception was made known, the commission temporarily suspended Judah and co-promoter Roy Englebrecht. Both have been summoned to appear at a disciplinary hearing on March 23. Because there wasn’t enough time to find a substitute promoter, the entire card was cancelled.

Judah last fought on Dec. 7, 2013 when he lost a 12-round decision to Paulie Malignaggi at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. He has had three fights – now four – fall out in the interim. His 42-9 record is somewhat deceiving as eight of those losses came in bouts sanctioned as world title fights by one or more of the major sanctioning bodies.

This is an unexpected turn of events for longtime Southern California promoter Roy Englebrecht, who has been one of the busiest grass roots boxing promoters in the country over the last three decades. Englebrecht currently promotes a monthly series of mixed MMA and boxing cards at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. His next show goes April 7.

There were two interesting bouts on the undercard. Steve Clagett (23-3-1) of Calgary, Alberta, was matched against would-be-spoiler Jeremy Bryan (17-6) of Paterson, New Jersey in an 8-round welterweight bout. Jesus Gutierrez (14-0-1) of Las Vegas was paired against Leon Spinks III (11-3-1) of St. Louis in an 8-round lightweight contest. No make-up dates have been scheduled.

Although there have been several boxing shows at the “D,” an outdoor venue, tomorrow’s show was heralded as the inaugural event of a series, “Knockout Night at the D.” A publicist for the promoter assures us that the series on the CBS Sports Network will continue.

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