WBA junior welterweight champ Amir Khan (25-1, 17 KOs) and IBF champ, Zab Judah (41-6, 28 KOs) have agreed to terms and will meet in an HBO feature, July 23 in Las Vegas, likely at the Mandalay Bay.
After WBC/WBO champ Timothy Bradley refused to come to terms with the UK champ for a summer unification bout, Khan’s promotional team, Golden Boy, went looking for a suitable replacement and entertained several possible foes for the high-profile bout.
Judah, the former welterweight and three-time junior welterweight champ, wasn’t hard to find, as he immediately put his name on the list of willing replacements.
After brief negotiations and a compromise on venue and money split (55-45 in favor of Khan), both fighters are now verbally on board for the bout, which will have major implications in the smoking-hot 140-pound weight class.
In Khan’s last contest, he bested Ireland’s Paul McCloskey in a lackluster six-round technical decision. Prior to that, the former Olympic silver medalist scored back-to-back impressive wins over Marcos Maidana (UD 12) and Paulie Malignaggi (TKO 11).
Judah is coming off an impressive TKO 7 win in March over Kaizer Mabuza for the vacant IBF title.
Just signed on the undercard is another interesting junior welterweight clash as Lamont Peterson (28-1-1, 14 KOs) meets Victor Manuel Cayo (26-1, 18 KOs) in an IBF 140-pound title eliminator.
