NEW YORK — Miguel Cotto, a popular Puerto Rican welterweight whose fans made up a majority of the sold-out Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, stopped Brooklyn's Zab Judah in the 11th round to keep his WBA welterweight title.
Cotto knocked down Judah earlier in the round before finishing off his 30th straight win at 49 seconds.
Although Judah grew up just a few miles from the Garden, he was an outsider on this night, and he was heavily booed when he entered the ring.
But Judah, who was last in a title fight 14 months ago when he was outpointed by Floyd Mayweather, brought his best. The former champion, coming off a suspension for his role in a melee during the Mayweather fight, fell to 34-5, but he has lost three in a row.
On the undercard, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. took out the man who sent his father into retirement, knocking out Grover Wiley in the third round.
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The younger Chavez knocked down Wiley twice before ending it with a powerful left to the body that saw the American crumple to the canvas with no intention of getting up.
It was a sharp contrast to when Wiley beat Chavez Sr. on Sept. 17, 2005, in Phoenix, in the fifth round.
That was the last fight of the Mexican sporting hero's illustrious career.
The 21-year-old Chavez Jr., a super welterweight, is 32-0-1 with 24 knockouts. He has won nine straight, seven by knockouts, since a draw with Carlos Molina on Dec. 16, 2005.
Wiley has lost four straight to fall to 30-10-1. He never was in this bout.
Earlier, super featherweight Humberto Soto of Mexico used a dagger of a right to knock out Bobby Pacquiao of the Philippines at 1:48 of the seventh round.
Also, Belarus super welterweight Yuri Foreman, fighting out of New York, ran his record to 23-0 with a split decision over Anthony Thompson of Philadelphia.
Tarver regains title
HARTFORD, Conn. — Antonio Tarver regained the IBO light-heavyweight title, winning a 12-round decision over Elvir Muriqi.
Tarver, 38, had not fought since losing the title convincingly to Bernard Hopkins a year ago.
Tarver's next opponent could be undefeated Chad Dawson, who successfully defended his WBC light-heavyweight title on the same card, stopping Mexico's Jesus "Chuy" Ruiz in the sixth round.
Former ASU coach Bobby Hurley's name is in the Big Dance record book
