ELEVENTH ROUND TKO FOR COTTO

NEW YORK -- Several weeks ago Zab Judah promised he would replace Miguel Cotto both as welterweight champion and as grand marshal of the annual Puerto Rican Day parade in Manhattan. By the time their fight for the World Boxing Association title was over Saturday night, it looked like Judah would be appearing in the next episode of "ER" instead.

by Ron Borges | Photos by Will Hart

Cotto methodically broke Judah down, tearing apart first his body and then his face. By the time referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. stepped in and stopped the fight at :49 of the 11th round, the right side of Judah's face was swollen badly and his eye had been sliced open and begun to close. His body too was badly beaten, both from the result of legitimate punches to the belt line and ribs as well as two low blows in rounds 1 and 3 that sent Judah to the floor in the fetal position with pain lacing his face.

While Cotto contended both were accidental the first came not long after Judah's left uppercut caught the champion flush on the jaw and seemed to stun him with about a minute remaining in the first round. As Judah moved in to try and press that advantage, Cotto caught him with a shot well below boxing's recognized demilitarized zone and Judah went down. When it happened again in Round 3, Mercante gave Judah the full five minute rest period and then told him "You can't win a championship like this. Let's go. Let's fight."

Judah did but not well enough to hold off the stronger and more relentless champion. Cotto stalked Judah all night, walking through several nasty uppercuts, ignoring a split lower lip and shaking off the effects of a cut along his own right eye that left his chest spattered with blood and the front of his white satin shorts stained a watery red. Regardless of what Judah tried, Cotto ignored it all and kept walking straight toward him, stinging him with a jab that often set up stiff right hands behind it , especially once Judah's right eye began to close. Although Judah refused to wilt as he did when he turned defenseless against Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Cotto finally beat him down with his superior strength and a constantly pressuring approach that slowly began to wear Judah down until there was little left of the fighter he had been when he first entered the ring an hour earlier.

"I expected a tough fight," Cotto (30-0, 25 KO) said. "That's exactly what I got. He sure did land some great punches but I could tell, round by round, I was taking over the fight."

There was nothing Judah could do to stop that process. Although he hurt Cotto early with a sneaky left uppercut that caught the champion as he advanced several times, Judah (34-5, 25 KO) was never able to sustain his attack nor dissuade Cotto from boring in on him with the voraciousness of a field of boll weevils.

That attack finally sent Judah down to one knee in ninth round to escape what was becoming a pummeling in his own corner. His right eye was by then badly closing, his eye and mouth were bleeding and his sides were aching when he took a step back from Cotto and went to one knee without being hit again.

For a moment it looked like Judah would not get up despite the fact his mind was clear even though his head was pounding but as Mercante approached the 10 count he pushed himself up gamely and fought on. Judah lasted the round and boxed gamely through the 10th but by the end of that round he seemed spent, physically dominated and mentally beaten.

Cotto sensed that and attacked him with his jab and the right hands behind it, driving Judah down on his back only seconds into what would prove to be the final round. Judah got up again but now he had nothing to defend himself with but his heart and that was not going to hold off Cotto, who jumped on him again and sent him reeling into the ropes after one more combination landed flush.

At that point Mercante jumped between them and wrapped his arms around Judah. No one disputed his decision. Or the need for it.

As Judah sat slumped in his corner as his attendants worked on his face, Miguel Cotto stood in the center of the ring with his hands raised and said what was now obvious to all. "I'm ready to fight anyone," Miguel Cotto said. Zab Judah would certainly not dispute that.