Round by Round: Spinks-Judah II.
| Tonight in the Savvis Center in St. Louis, Zab Judah won the rematch with Cory Spinks and in the process, became the undisputed welterweight champion of the world and a two-weight world champion. The fight was a very competitive and technical fight to begin with but as the rounds went on, Judah |  © Tom Casino/Showtime |
was able to get closer and start to land his bombs.
Read on for the exclusive Saddoboxing.com round by round report of this sensational main event.
Round one: This is a range-finding round as both fighters posture and move a lot. Judah loads up on his straight left hand. Spinks tries to land some combinations inside. There is no decisive action in this round.
Round two: Judah is the more aggressive fighter but Spinks is landing more and is successful in catching Judah coming in with some sharp shots. They remain mere millimetres away from one another in these tense opening rounds. No real advantages are gained in this round but there is a real intensity and excitement about the fight.
Round three: There is a lot of parrying of punches and ineffective body jabs thrown by both fighters in this round. Spinks does well with his straight left hand. Judah looks sharp and succeeds in clipping Spinks with a good right hook.
Round four: Judah lands some good lefts. Spinks is on the outside and landing some snappy shots. Judah does the more effective work in this round and the action starts to heat up nicely.
Round five: Neither fighter really commits himself in this round in the beginning until Judah starts to land some hard shots. Spinks is the bigger fighter by some way and looks more solid but Judah is starting to become the boss in the fight.
Round six: Not much lands in this round except one big straight left hand from Spinks which drives Judah into a rage and he tries to force himself forward into landing a good shot back on Spinks.
Round seven: Judah lands some powerful hooks. They each land some single shots but the action is scrappy. Judah hurts Spinks with a barrage of hard shots and Spinks goes down, it’s a knockdown but referee Armando Garcia calls it a push and there is barely any time to count it as it comes right at the end of the round.
Round eight: Judah starts to stalk Spinks, sensing that he is hurt. Spinks tries to come back but he was obviously stunned when he was knocked down towards the end of the previous round. A big left from Judah followed by more of the same score well for the Brooklyn man but Spinks lands some decent one-two combinations. The action is very heated now.
Round nine: A left lands well for Spinks. Judah suddenly scores a huge punch which has Spinks swaying around and soon, Spinks is on the floor receiving the mandatory eight count. Judah waits for Spinks to be let go to fight by the referee but looks hesitant to really nail the champion. Judah lands some good shots and urges Garcia to stop the fight but the referee will not. Judah launches into Spinks one last time and Garcia finally stops the fight.
The winner by TKO in the ninth round, and the new undisputed welterweight champion of the world, Zab Judah.
Jim Cawkwell can be reached at jimcawkwell@yahoo.co.uk