BoxingTalk Story |
By Scott Shaffer
09/06/2019
Rumors abound about the health of former two-division champion Zab Judah, who was stopped in round eleven by Cletus Seldin in Verona, New York on Friday. According to his immediate family, Judah suffered a brain bleed (subdural hematoma) after a punishing fight. Several boxing websites are running with undocumented-- and apparently false-- reports that Judah fell into a coma. [It must be noted, Seldin has a documented history with PEDs, which Seldin claimed was a result of testosterone therapy]. UPDATE 1:00 pm Sunday: Zab's father and trainer Yoel told Boxingtalk publisher G. Leon, "he never went into a coma. The bleeding on his brain stopped, the swelling went down. Zab is up, he's walking and talking. Right now he's just been held in the hospital for observation."
ESPN's Steve Kim writes: "According to [Top Rank VP] Carl Moretti, former matchmaker at Main Events while Zab Judah was with the company, He [Moretti] has spoken to his mother [and] Judah is 'doing better, was never in an induced coma, did have some bleeding on the brain. But did CAT scan today and went down a little.'"
The current matchmaker for Main Events, Jolene Mizzone, told Sports Illustrated's Chis Mannix that, "Zab Judah is resting comfortably at a New York hospital after suffering a brain bleed in a knockout loss to Cletus Seldin on Friday... He is alert and improving."
Prior to the news of Judah's hospitalization, Katz said, "There is an old saying boxing is a young man's sport. Zab left everything in the ring tonight and did the best he could but Cletus Seldin was a wrecking ball."
Judah, age 41, was inactive from 2013-2016, and won one low-level fight in each of 2017 and 2018 before facing the hard-punching Seldin. Boxingtalk will continue to follow this breaking news...