basically, Zab is/was a very good fighter who just didnt have that extra something to be a great one. whether it was his focus or dedication early or his will later on. just good enough get to the mountain top, not good enough to get over it. now at a time where he has mentally matured and become a smarter fighter, he doesnt have the once ridiculous speed he once had. his boxing prime and physical prime missed each other.
aside from the baldy fight, he's always been prepared and in shape to fight. to me zab just never developed skill wise. he's always had the natural talent(speed, power) but he never had a right hook, never was a combination/counter puncher, never was a thinking fighter, and every fight he came into he always had the SAME gameplan................. double the jab and land a straight left. i laughed when paulie said zab had a good jab because zab doesn't even try to land it at times. he'll just throw one or two fast zabs to put it in the face of his opponent than fire a blazing straight left.
when zab can't land the straight left, what can he do? Nothing! and it's sad because in reality he's very one dimensional and for him to come as far as he did with that gameplan he accomplished alot. it wasn't until the cosme rivera fight until zab added that uppercut. it pisses me off to see zab with 8! 8 fukking loses on his resume. aside from tszyu, floyd, and maybe cotto, he should have won all those fights.