Zab Judah's name hasn't come up very much of late, and those who assumed he was retired are excused. Two bouts in six years will do that to you.
Nonetheless, Judah (44-9, 1 NC, 30 KOs), a former two-division world titleholder, will end his most recent sabbatical Friday, when he faces Cletus Seldin (23-1, 1 NC, 19 KOs) in a 12-round junior welterweight bout at Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York.
The card is part of induction weekend at the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and one can't help but wonder if Judah harbors dreams of someday having a plaque on the wall in nearby Canastota.
It's impossible to look back at Judah's protracted journey through boxing's precarious landscape without noting how controversy, much of it self-induced, has impacted his career.
What's the first thing you think of when Judah's name is mentioned?
Is it winning the vacant IBF junior welterweight title by coming off the floor to knock out Jan Piet Bergman or is it his temper tantrum when Kostya Tszyu stopped him and took the title away?
How about Judah's upset TKO of Cory Spinks to win the welterweight world championship? Then again, maybe what stands out is the brawl between the fighters' camps he instigated by flagrantly fouling Floyd Mayweather.
Fair or not, high-profile meltdowns are difficult to overcome. It's simply human nature. The bad usually trumps the good when it comes to the making a lasting impact.
There was a time when it seemed the Brooklyn-born boxer seemed destined for greatness. Judah was blessed with a deep well of athletic ability, dizzying speed and a showy style that fit his colorful personality.
"On June 7, everybody will see I'm back. They'll see I've still got the power and the speed." Zab Judah
Even after his disastrous loss to Tszyu in 2001, he made amends, rebooting his career and knocking out Spinks in 2005. The victory was particularly sweet because Judah did it in Spinks' hometown of St. Louis in front of a partisan sellout crowd of more than 20,000.
That meaningful achievement should count for something if Judah eventually gets on the IBHOF ballot. At the time, he couldn't have asked for a better audition for an upcoming pay-per-view fight with Mayweather.
When asked if he considered the upset victory over Spink his best performance, Judah punted.
"Right now, I'm still moving forward," he said. "I'm still adding to my legacy. I'll look back on my career when I'm not fighting anymore."
Fighters have to think that way, especially when they're 41 years old and haven't had a major victory in more than eight years. It was way back in March 2011 when Judah stopped Kaizer Mabuza to once again win the vacant IBF junior welterweight title. He has had only six fights since then, winning three and losing three.
Judah can't afford to look back. The future is now. This is his last chance to work his way into the title picture. However, at this phase of his career, the best any fighter can do is know that victory means another fight, perhaps for more money.
That's how a comeback works, stacking one win on top of another, building blocks to the big time and major money. Judah has been there before and wants another taste. Beating Seldin would be the first step in that direction, but the "Hebrew Hammer" isn't the usual easy-touch comeback opponent.
A former high school football player, wrestler and bodybuilder, Seldin, 32, is a powerful man. He heaved 470 pounds off the floor while still in school, setting a New York State deadlifting record for men weighing up to 145 pounds. In some ways he resembles Vinny Paz. He's not as good or as accomplished but has a similar wolverine attitude and bullying attack.
After a brief amateur career, Seldin turned pro in July 2011 and went undefeated in his first 22 bouts. He sold a lot of tickets in the Huntington, New York area, but his limitations were exposed during a trip to Laval, Canada, where skillful Yves Ulysse Jr. boxed his ears off to take a unanimous 10-round decision. Seldin was knocked down three times, but, to his credit, lasted the distance.
Throughout the best part of his career, Judah had feasted on guys like Seldin. He was too fast, too clever and hit too hard for opponents who tried to bum rush him. But that was prime Judah. How much he has left remains to be seen, but at least he knows what he's up against.
"[Seldin] is a very aggressive opponent but fights out of emotion and anger," Judah said. "When I did that, it didn't work. It's better to stay calm."
Judah should know. Fair or not, his meltdowns in the Tszyu and Mayweather fights are probably the defining moments of his career.
There also has been trouble outside of a boxing context. Judah pleaded no contest after his arrest for domestic violence in 2017, and he received a suspended sentence, community service, and court-mandated domestic violence counseling. He was also sentenced to three months in jail for failing to pay child support later that year.
It's hard to quantify how much these incidents hurt Judah's career, but they sure didn't help. The combined fines for the Tszyu and Mayweather freakouts totaled $350,000, and two suspensions of his boxing license cost him 18 months of forced inactivity.
But Judah has shown surprising resilience. His career as a world-class fighter seemed all but over after the decision loss to Mayweather in 2006, followed by a TKO beatdown at the hands of Miguel Cotto in June 2007.
But "Super Judah" had more left than most people thought. He won seven of his next eight bouts, including a decision over heavy-handed contender Lucas Matthysse, and the title-winning TKO of Mabuza.
The fight game is nothing if not notoriously fickle. Just when things were going well again, Judah seem to lose the thread of his career and never really found it again.
He lost to Amir Khan, Danny Garcia and Paulie Malignaggi. Age and physical depreciation undoubtedly had something to do with it. Judah was a 17-year veteran of the pro ranks by the time Malignaggi beat him by unanimous decision in December 2013.
"I needed time to recuperate," Judah said. "I'm smarter now, wiser, more seasoned. I know what to expect. It's a different timeline now. I'm having fun. I'm more focused than in the past."
Perhaps not fighting for almost four years will turn out to be the tonic Judah needed for one last shot at holding Father Time at bay, a least long enough to earn a nice retirement check.
If Judah gets past Seldin, there could be some attractive money matches on the horizon. One possibility is a fight with Tim Tszyu, the 24-year-old son of Kostya Tszyu, the man who handed Judah his first defeat.
"Yeah, 100 percent, it's been in discussion already," Tim told the Sydney Morning Herald. "It could happen in the future. What a fight that would be in Australia. It was right at the end of the second [when my dad won], so I have to do it in under two rounds."
Judah has to win Friday to keep his career above the stepping-stone level. Unless he stops Seldin, he'll have to keep moving for 12 rounds, a daunting task with aging legs and a bulldog of an opponent on his tail.
"On June 7, everybody will see I'm back," Judah said. "They'll see I've still got the power and the speed."
That's pretty much the standard talk when faded fighters launch a comeback. We've heard it all before. Seldin could very well run roughshod over Judah the way he has the majority of his adversaries.
On the other hand, if Judah wins, imagine the reception he'll get the next day when he stops by the International Boxing Hall of Fame.