[youtube=http://youtu.be/P_7uZDIfTFU]
You can call this edition of Friday Night Fights the "if you had this opening the Barclays Center back in 2007, you woulda had people hanging from the rafters" edition. We figured since the brand new Barclays Center, in the heart of Brooklyn, is hosting the first professional boxing event in Brooklyn since 1931 this weekend why not feature two cats that share a bit of popularity in New York City as well as, undoubtedly, Brooklyn. Zab Judah is your definitive Brooklyn cat. Well at this point he was. The skill, power and speed he possessed were near enigmatic. But he was never able to put it all together, and keep it all together, to become an elite fighter. By all rights he could have been near the top of the sport, but he consistently let himself down. Whether not being able to make the step to the big stage, against Kostya Tszyu or Floyd Mayweather Jr, or his reaction to not being able to do it: going after the referee after a KO loss to Tsyzu or repeatedly low blowing Mayweather when he realized he was going to lose the fight Judah just never possessed the mental faculties to be one of the best. Even here, back in 2007, Jim Lampley discusses the fight being a chance for redemption for Judah. He's on that road still. Miguel Cotto on the other hand, has proven he is one of the best in the game. Not necessarily a P4P favorite, but he's a fan favorite. And that's more important when it comes to us trying to present interesting fights. On this night Cotto was still a star on the rise, a dude with everything in front of him. Little could he know he would run into the plastered fists of Antonio Margarito or the superhuman power of Manny Pacquiao. But he made it through both losses, avenging one to Margarito, and went on to nearly beat a seemingly unbeatable Mayweather. That's why he's a legend to Puerto Ricans both at home and in NYC. Cause they, like all good boxing fans, love a fighter. And these two came to fight.
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