By Sammy Rozenberg

 

After Zab Judah was upset by heavy underdog Carlos Baldomir in January, a future bout with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. appeared to be memory. In a risky move, promoters Don King and Bob Arum agreed to move forward with the April pay-per-view for Mayweather-Judah.

 

The hype for the event revolved around a friendship between both fighters that went sour when Judah became jealous of Mayweather's quick rise in the sport. In a surprise to many, the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada sold thousands of tickets within a few days and the anticipation for the bout remained strong.

 

Despite what many experts had predicted, the fight turned out to be competitive, and packed action from the fighters and their camps when a riot broke out at the end of the tenth round.

 

The fight started off well for Zab Judah (34-4, 25 KOs), who used his southpaw style, speed and reflexes to get off first with his punches and won three of the first four rounds. As the fight went on, Floyd Mayweather (36-0, 24 KOs) figured Judah out and dominated the remainder of the fight with accurate punches to the body and head of Judah. Mayweather’s accurate punches caused Judah's mouth and nose to bleed profusely for most of the fight.

 

As Mayweather began busting Judah up with hard punches in the tenth round, Judah landed a vicious low blow that caused Mayweather to crumble in pain. As Mayweather went down from the low blow, his uncle/trainer Roger Mayweather charged the ring to go after Judah which prompted the Judah camp to charge the ring and a riot broke out in the ring between the camps of both fighters. As the punches flew from the camps, police and security charged the ring to break up the melee. Roger Mayweather was thrown out of Floyd's corner for charging the ring.

 

Once order was restored, the fight was restarted with 5 seconds left in the tenth round. Mayweather stuck to his gameplan by winning the remaining rounds to win the IBF welterweight title by way of unanimous decision. The final scores were 116-112, 117-111, and 119-109, all for Mayweather.

 

Judah was able to give a better account of himself in this fight. The performance was much better than his last outing in January, but he was still unable to step up his game when it counted most in the later rounds of the fight as his trainer/father Yoel Judah was pleading with him to let his hands go.

 

The welterweight division now wide open with plenty of major fights to be made. Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton, the undefeated fighter of the year for 2005, is moving up to the welterweight division when he faces WBA champion Luis Collazo in May. A victim of Mayweather, Arturo Gatti, challenges Judah conqueror Carlos Baldomir in July for the WBC welterweight title. Shane Mosley has elected to have a rematch in July with Fernando Vargas at the 154-pound limit, but regardless of the outcome, Mosley is set on moving back down to the welterweight division.

 

Prior to the clash between Mayweather and Judah, a July date was reserved by Top Rank for the winner to face WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito. Margarito is the most dangerous puncher in the division, possesses a strong chin and is physically bigger than most welterweights. It is very unlikely that Mayweather fights a dangerous opponent like Margarito for less money than he would make against many other top welterweights

 

The plan appears to be for Floyd to target Oscar De La Hoya, should De La Hoya win his upcoming bout against Ricardo Mayorga in May. The bout would take place in September. If Mayorga upsets De La Hoya, Floyd has mentioned Shane Mosley as a possibly opponent is Shane wins his rematch against Fernando Vargas.

 

At the end of the day, Floyd proved that he is still the best fighter in the sport, winning his fourth world title in his fourth weight division and remarkably he is  still under the age of 30.

 

On the undercard:

 

In a featured attraction grudge match, WBC interim flyweight champion Jorge Arce (44-3, 34KOs) broke down former champion Rosendo Alvarez (37-3-2, 24KOs) on route to a stoppage in the sixth round. The two fighters were throwing a lot of leather in the ring, as well as verbal insults as they fought. A single left hook to the body caused Alarvez to drop down to one knee for the referee's full count of ten.

 

The 35-year-old Alvarez is likely to retire and concentrate on his promotional business. Alvarez was forced to pay Arce $25,000 dollars of his purse, because he weighed in three pounds over the weight limit of 112 pounds at the weighin.

 

WBA lightweight champion Juan Diaz (29-0, 14KOs) fought his was to a unanimous decision over undefeated Jose Miguel Cotto (27-1, 19KOs). The bout had many close rounds, but Diaz became the more dominant fighter down the stretch. Cotto, who is the older brother of WBO junior welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, threw over 1500 punches in the bout. The scored were 116-112, 117-111, and 118-110, all for Diaz.

 

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (25-0-1, 19 KOs) stopped undefeated Tyler Ziolowski (5-1, 5 KOs) with a single body shot to the liver in the second round. Chavez entered the ring weighing a whopping 164 pounds, almost 20 pounds above the welterweight limit. From the start, Chavez was the much larger man and rolled right over the inexperienced Ziolowski.

 

In a battle of heavyweights, Dominic Jenkins (7-5-2, 2 KOs) scored a very unexpected upset when he knocked out undefeated former Olympian Victor Bisbal (5-1, 4 KOs) in two rounds. Jenkins knocked Bisbal out with a hard shot in the second round to pick up the biggest win of his career.

 

Wes Ferguson (13-1-1, 8KOs) squeaked out a close ten-round split decision over Jose Manuel Lopez (16-2, 9KOs) Scores were 95-93 and 97-92 for Ferguson and Lopez was leading on the other with a score of 95-94.

 

Former Olympian Vanes Martirosyan (8-0, 5KOs) knocked out Tefo Seetso in three rounds.

 

Super bantamweight Sal Garcia (14-3-2, 7KOs) stopped Juan Ramon Cruz (13-1, 9KOs) at the end of the sixth round.