According to former champion Zab Judah, Golden Boy Promotions contacted him yesterday for a potential clash with WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley. "So Richard Schaefer ya'll calls my dad today, him and Shelly Finkel. You know Shelly Finkel is a crook. So they called my dad today and tried to offer me a fight with Sugar Shane Mosley," Judah stated in a recent video blog.
Judah, who was broadcasting a live stream on Ustream.com, received a phone call from his father and trainer, Yoel Judah, as we chatting with fans. "How much they offer the fight for Abba [Yoel Judah]," Judah asked, to which, Yoel replied on speakerphone, "$300,000 plus 500!"
"$500,000! Ya'll heard that? Are they out they mind? How I'ma fight an HGH patient for $500,000? Are you crazy? Never! Yeah, they missing a zero...That's bullshit! Nobody's fuckin' fightin' an HGH patient for $500,000. Come on, man! That's like fighting two people. You have to pay me twice then," Judah remarked about the offer.
Judah was originally scheduled to face Antonio Diaz on the undercard of the September 19th clash between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez. This past weekend, however, Judah revealed that he was pulling out of the fight, sighting a lack of interest in the opponent and the payday being offered. "The money is not right...I'm not worried about Antonio Diaz, that's just a tune-up bout for me. Anyway, I plan to have two tune-up bouts before the year is over," Judah stated this past Friday. Apparently, as far as Judah is concerned, Golden Boy's offer to fight Shane Mosley wasn't that much better.
"Shelly Finkel's a rat. He's a crook. Tell Mosley I'll pay him $500,000 and a bottle of steroids. How about that? A free bottle; he ain't gotta pay for it...My fans said make it a million. Tell him a million. Nah, for Mosley, we need like $1.8 million. We gonna start at $1.8 million. The minimum we going is $1.5 million. That's it. Never nothing under that," he added.
The potential bout between Mosley and Judah was also going to be broadcast on HBO pay-per-view as Judah revealed the offer included a 5% cut of the pay-per-view buys. "And they gave us 5% of the pay-per-view? Are they crazy? Yo, they out their mind, man. That's Golden Boy right there. They out their mind, man. 5%? Aw, damn. That's nothing. What the fuck is 5%? Thanks crazy, right? Richard Schaefer. Remember the name. Richard Schaefer," Judah continued as he evidentally turned down the offer.
"They tried to offer me 24/7. I don't give a...I got 24/7 right here. We got 33 people in here. We had 147 views in less than hour. Are they out their mind? This is 28/7 because we on all the time...Tell them suckas to have a nice day. They think they got a sucka...You see how this business is? $500,000 and 5% of pay-per-view, are they out they mind? Man, listen, they crazy. They tried to offer us 24/7 saying we can become famous over 24/7. We don't need 24/7. We already famous."
Since his dominant 9th round TKO victory over Antonio Margarito in January, Shane Mosley has been unable to secure a marquee name for an opponent. With Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto unwilling to face him, Mosley was left scrambling to find a suitable dance partner to follow-up his impressive performance. Although there were talks of a possible clash with Joshua Clottey, Mosley has shown little interest in facing the former champion, who's coming off of a loss to Miguel Cotto. There were also negotiations for a unification bout with Andre Berto, but the lack of funds to satisfy both parties has prevented that fight from becoming a reality.
Enter Zab Judah, who is 3-4 with 1 No Contest in his last eight bouts. Judah last fought in November of 2008 when he earned a lackluster 10-round unanimous decision over Ernest Johnson. Judah and Mosley were originally set to face off against each other in May of 2008 until the fight was cancelled when Judah suffered multiple lacerations on his right forearm. After receiving 50 stitches to close wounds suffered in an accidental fall, Judah was unable to train for four weeks and was forced to withdraw from the bout.
Whether or not the bout gets made remains to be seen as Judah clearly feels as though he's an elite fighter who deserves to be paid accordingly. Considering that there aren't too many other opponents out there that the former champion can make that kind of money against, Judah might want to reconsider his options. If, however, the two sides can't come to terms, Judah already has a backup plan. "I got a hit list that I'm putting together right now. I got all methodical robots. I got Andre Berto. I got Juan Diaz. I got Juan Urango...we getting ready to get paid. We gonna have some fun man."
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