Judah wants 50-50 deal with Khan
By William Mackay: IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah wants a fight on equal footing with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan and isn’t willing to take the short end of the stick. Judah wants a 50-50 deal. Khan and his promotional company Golden Boy Promotions are reportedly offering Judah a 60-40 deal with Judah getting the small end of the purse split.
Judah, naturally, isn’t happy with that offer, as he’s the more popular fighter of the two in the United States, and that’s where their fight would be taking place. Judah says he’s okay with Khan keeping his UK pay per view money, but he just wants the U.S money to be 50-50.
I don’t blame Judah for wanting a 50-50 deal. Khan is still a virtual unknown in American and he’s got a long ways to go before he’s a star. Khan still is trying to make a name in the U.S, but he’s only had one fight that was really interesting and that was against Marcos Maidana. Khan almost got knocked out in that fight, and failed to impress American fans with that performance. He won the fight, but it’s hard to impress when you’re running, holding and getting staggered the way Khan was. It’s unclear if Judah will take slightly less than a 50-50 deal,
Khan plans on fighting on July 23 in the U.S and he needs a notable fighter like Judah to help make the fight a success. Khan already used up a title defense in his last fight taking on a no-name opponent Paul McCloskey. This time, Khan has pressure on him to fight a live body and not another obscure opponent with zero power. Sky Box Office wanted no part of the Khan-McCloskey mismatch, and moved the fight – or at least tried to – from PPV to Sky 3. However, Khan then moved the fight from Sky to Primetime. As such, Khan fought a guy that only UK fans were familiar with and the fight was horrible.
More than likely, Khan won’t end up fighting Judah. We’ll probably see Khan fight a fellow Golden Boy fighter like Erik Morales or Robert Guerrero. However, if Khan fights Morales, he’ll still likely be stuck with a 50-50 deal if he’s lucky. Can you imagine a big star like Morales accepting less than an even split with a young upstart like Khan? Morales has captured multiple world title, whereas Khan has only captured one and he may not ever get another. You never know. If Timothy Bradley beats him and Judah knocks Khan cold, who will Khan be able to pick out to get a title? There’s nothing but solid fighters at light welterweight. Khan doesn’t have a weak champion like Andriy Kotelnik to go after and get an easy belt. At the end of the day, I think Judah is considered too dangerous for Khan and I don’t believe they are serious about wanting to negotiate with Judah. I see this as a situation where they’re using his name to get more publicity for Khan in the U.S the easy way. Judah hits too hard and would be too much of a threat to end the Khan gravy train before it gets started. Believe me, Khan’s next opponent will be a light puncher like Morales or a non-light welterweight like Guerrero.
