By Richard McManus (photo by Will Hart/HBO)

The upcoming bout between “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather and Zab “Super” Judah poses an interesting dilemma for fight fans.  Who should we root for? 

Most fans have favorite fighters and they pick their favorites based on certain factors like the fighter’s personality, hometown, ethnicity or country of origin.  But this fight supersedes all normal criterion for rooting.  It really gets to the heart of what makes boxing so compelling.  Who do we want to see get knocked out? 

Back in the late 1990’s Naseem Hamed was the Featherweight king but very few fans of the pugilistic arts on this side of the pond rooted for him.  Why?  Because his antics and personality were like nails on a chalkboard.  At points they became unbearable and we wanted nothing more than to see him get his head handed to him by somebody like Augie Sanchez or Kevin Kelley. 

We didn’t like the disrespect he showed for his opponents even though he showed respect for the sport by always putting on a good show and coming into his fights prepared and ready.  But most of us still couldn’t get behind “The Prince”.

Fortunately for us Marco Antonio Barrera was more than up to the task (of delivering Hamed’s head back to him) and although he didn’t stop Hamed inside the distance, the benefits of not seeing that were equaled by the torture inflicted by Marco upon Hamed over the 12-round distance. 

The only problem with that situation was one that we didn’t necessarily foresee.  We didn’t know that Hamed was going to basically disappear after that fight.  If we knew that we would have been careful what we wished for as time has made us miss him.  We would have appreciated him for what he was: A great champion that drove us crazy.

So what does this have to do with the upcoming Pay Per View bout?

Well, first of all, both Mayweather and Judah have consistently engaged in antics in and out of the ring that have less than endeared themselves to the boxing public at large. 

For Mayweather, it is more his body of work.  While he has won every time out, it has been his general disdain for the entertainment element involved in boxing.  He adheres to the “win ugly now, look good later” ethic. 

In general, boxing fans like fighters that entertain but also take care of business while appearing to respect the sport.  It’s a delicate balance and a rare combination for fighters at the top of the sport.  Think of fighters like Bernard Hopkins or Julio Cesar Chavez.  Now, I know this is a generalization, but I’m just speaking form the fans I know and from personal experience. 

In the case of Zab Judah, it has been his in and out of the ring exploits that have served to less than endear him to the boxing public.  Speaking of himself in the third person, throwing a chair after getting knocked out and looking past fighters while defending the unified Welterweight championship are just a few examples of these exploits. 

There was a time (after the win over Cory Spinks) when fans thought Judah had turned a corner.  Our faith in “Super” was betrayed however when he showed sheer unprofessional behavior by coming in unprepared and nearly getting stopped by a guy (Carlos Baldomir) with 12 knockouts in 49 career fights.

To top it all off, both fighters have shown a general disrespect for the sport (and a contempt for the fans that make it) by even staging this fight and proceeding to call it a championship Pay Per View fight. 

So this all brings us to the focus of this story.  Who should we root for? 

Well, I guess it depends on who you would more like to see lose.  We’ve already seen Judah lose.  Kostya Tszyu took care of that.  And then Carlos Baldomir knocked Zab out of the Top 50 Pound for Pound with his win last January over ”Super”.  We’ve seen Mayweather in some tough fights and we’ve even seen him lose in the eyes of the boxing public in the second Castillo fight.  But his record reads 35-0 and you can’t take anything away from that. 

So from a fight fan’s perspective, it’s okay to root for Judah, but just this time. 

Contact Richard at rmcm12@hotmail.com