Amir ‘King’ Khan wins IBF Light-welterweight Title; knocks-out Zab Judah

Britain’s Amir Khan won the IBF’s light-welterweight title when he knocked out Zab Judah in the fifth round in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Khan hit Judah with a hard right hand in the midsection, sending the American veteran to the canvas 2min 47sec into the fifth round of the 64kg IBF unification bout.

“I am beating everyone. Bring on the next challenge,” Khan said.

The 24-year-old Khan already owned the WBA light-welterweight belt, and now adds Judah’s IBF title to his résumé.
Judah, who was a 5-1 underdog, stayed down on his knees as referee Vic Drakulich counted him out.
The 33-year-old Judah appeared surprised when Drakulich stopped the fight as his record dropped to 41-7 with 28 KOs.

Khan dominated the American, who was bleeding from his nose and cuts to his face at the start of the final round.
Olympic silver medallist Khan raised his record to 26-1 with 18 KOs as he landed 61 punches to Judah’s 20. Khan, who is trained by world-renowned boxing guru Freddie Roach, said the camp had a perfect game plan. “We trained hard. Freddie gave me a game plan that worked. Every punch I threw was hitting him on the chin.

“We knew Zab would be tricky. We wanted to be one step ahead of him. We slowly took the backhand away from him and, as soon I did that, all my shots were hitting him.”

Judah was out-punched consistently in the middle of the ring and was behind on the judges’ scorecards when he got knocked out with a body shot. But he claimed the fight should not have been stopped because the knockout punch was a low blow. Khan did not agree.

“He was open for a right hook,” said Khan, who threw 284 punches compared with Judah’s 115. “It was above the belt; nowhere near below the belt.”

-Jago News-