MAYWEATHER DEFEATS JUDAH
World Welterweight Championship. Floyd Mayweather Jr. wins by unanimous decision over Zab Judah.
April 10, 2006 - by Bert Sugar
Judah, who obviously had not been reading the pre-fight predictions of those who thought he had little or no chance against Mayweather--the number of those picking him fewer than the fingers on the hand of a clumsy carpenter--took the fight from the git-go to Mayweather keeping him off-balance with his jab and occasional straight lefts. In the second he seemingly floored Mayweather, but referee Richard Steele ruled it a "no knockdown," and in the fourth drove Mayweather into the ropes with a volley of punches.
|
| FIGHTERS |
Judah |
Mayweather |
| TOTAL PUNCHES |
| Thrown |
444 |
404 |
| Connected |
82 |
188 |
| % |
18% |
47% |
| JABS |
| Thrown |
282 |
109 |
| Connected |
23 |
43 |
| % |
8% |
39% |
| POWER PUNCHES |
| Thrown |
162 |
295 |
| Connected |
59 |
145 |
| % |
36% |
49% |
| JUDGES SCORECARDS |
| Dave Moretti |
112 |
116 |
| Jerry Roth |
111 |
117 |
| Glen Hamada |
109 |
119 |
But come the fifth Mayweather, who had been viewing Judah with eyes of a meditative fish for the first four rounds, began to take control of the fight and, using his right as a jab, penetrated Judah's defense and punctuated his attack with booming lefts to the body. And so it went for the next four rounds as Judah became more protective and less productive and Mayweather continued his assault, walking down Judah and more than occasionally pummeling the soon-to-be-ex-champion with double right-hand jabs and body shots thrown with moves independent of conscious effort, bloodying Judah's nose and mouth and nearly closing his right eye in the process. And all the while hurling "lip jazz" in the direction of Judah as well, saying "Is that all ya got?" and "You ain't hurtin me."
It has been said that boxing is monstrous quicksand, its particles forever changing. And so it was that in the tenth the fight changed again, this time courtesy of Judah who, now sporting the air of an inexpert conjurer whose tricks had gone awry, sent one well-placed, low blow worthy of the name "foul" into Mayweather's nether region then followed with a right to the back of the head and a "thank-you-maam"-left that barely missed.
Judah's Mother of All Low Blows was like a match thrown into a paint factory, igniting the melee that followed. For, as Mayweather staggered off in the direction of his corner clutching his privates--and remembering his trainer's pre-fight warning that "if Zab gets hurt he is going to do something dirty"--his trainer and uncle, Roger Mayweather, charged into the ring. Next came Zab's trainer and father, Yoel, who rushed at Roger and smote him, sending him reeling into the ropes. Then, faster than you can get an Elks' convention to adopt a motion to adjournment, the ring was filled with bodies as both camps, looking like they had just emptied out the mission house, swarmed in to register complaints. There was no official count of the number of bodies center ring, but a back-of-the-envelope calculation put it at about 50 or more as everyone but Bob Arum and Don King stood center ring as punches, police and pandemonium rained and reigned--Zab himself re-entering the fray with a couple of well-placed punches he should have used against Mayweather.
Finally, after about five minutes--a full 16 minutes short of the record held by the disturbance created by Fan Man to resume a fightus interuptus --the ring was cleared and, with Roger Mayweather sent to the dressing room to sample of the soap and banned from the corner, the fight was continued with but five seconds left in the round.
The final two rounds were anti-climactic with Mayweather continuing his control--even offering up his chin in a taunting gesture to Judah in the 12th.
The result was obvious, a 119-109, 117-111, 116-12 unanimous decision for Mayweather, who added his fourth title to his growing legacy?
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