NEW YORK --- Moments after Arthur Mercante Jr. had rescued Zab Judah from Miguel Cotto’s relentless onslaught and well before the fighters’ entourages had even cleared the ring, one of the WBA welterweight champion’s admirers made his way down to ringside bearing a Puerto Rican flag, which bore a freshly-lettered slogan: COTTO vs. FLOYD.

Hey, why not? Bob Arum’s got a year to work on it. Assuming Cotto and Floyd Mayweather can remain unbeaten (and we think we can vouch for Cotto’s chances) until the eve of next year’s Puerto Rican Day Parade, Madison Square Garden would be the perfect spot for it.

In what already become a June tradition in the Big Apple, Cotto enacted another ritualistic dismemberment of yet another popular New York fighter Saturday night, when he pummeled Judah into submission in the eleventh round.

The feat was accomplished by the second-largest crowd in Garden history: the 20,658 eyewitnesses to this one were just ninety fewer than turned out for the second Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight 33 years ago.

It was a predominantly, though by no means exclusively, pro-Cotto crowd, and they were treated to not only Cotto’s virtuostic performance, but to a display of courage on Judah’s part. Zab not only had to survive two low blows and three clashes of heads (at least two of which were initiated by himself), but an evening-long barrage of 683 punches, 292 of which found their mark.

Judah actually won the first round on all three scorecards, though by the time it was over it was a painful experience. After he and Cotto spent the first minute feeling one another out with jabs, Judah measured a lazy hook from the champion and delivered a counter left of his own that Cotto walked straight into.

He didn’t have much time to feel good about it, though. Moments later a left from Cotto caught him low, and the next thing you knew Zab was writhing around on the canvas.

After giving Judah time to recover, referee Mercante, no doubt sensing danger in the air, sternly warned the challenger that any attempt at retaliation would be penalized.

Cotto got off with a warning for the first scrotum shot, but when he did it again early in the third Mercante immediately assessed a point. By the time he did, it became apparent that Cotto’s chest was covered in his own blood, the result of a cut lip he had sustained when the two banged heads just before the low blow.

There was another clash of heads early in the fourth, and this time Judah got the worst of it as blood spurted from above his right eye.

Cotto remained the aggressor, as he would throughout the night, and in the sixth the boxers’ heads came together yet again. Mercante warned both of them, and Cotto, bleeding from a gash on his forehead took it upon himself to walk over and grasp Judah with his gloves in a clumsy embrace that probably defused the growing anger of the crowd.

Then he went back to work and started beating Zab up again.

Judah had one moment remaining, in the seventh round, when he unleashed a furious combination that stopped Cotto in his tracks. He carried the stanza on all three cards, but it was the last round he would win.

In the ninth, Cotto hurt Judah with a blistering combination. Zab attempted to retaliate with a wild right, but after missing it he turned and deliberately took a knee, hoping to revive.

He didn’t. By the tenth an ugly welt had spread across the right side of his face, and Cotto appeared to be moving in for the kill. Judah probably saved himself when, out of nowhere, he unloaded a left that caught Cotto right on the chest, and the punch slowed him down just enough to postpone the inevitable.

A left hand followed by a hard right put Judah on the floor again in the 11th. Mercante allowed him to resume, but was watching warily. Cotto, switching to southpaw (as he had done upon occasion throughout the night), moved in to drill him with two straight lefts and a right hook, and the referee had seen enough.

Mercante’s intercession came at 0:49 of the round, and seconds later Yoel Judah was out of the corner and cradling the head of his beaten son.

It was an impressive show by Cotto, who had a 90-24 edge in power shots over the last four rounds. Hundreds, if not thousands, of miniature Puerto Rican flags fluttered around the arena, and, as Cotto was being interviewed in the ring, Judah (who had by now donned a pair of dark glasses and wore a towel over his head) approached to congratulate him.

“Great fight, man,” he said. Moments later Judah, however, Judah was complaining about the conduct of the bout.“He hit me low twice and the referee didn’t say anything about it,” groused Judah. “Those low blows took a lot out of me. I want a rematch.”

Well, first of all, the referee did say something on both occasions. After the first he spoke to both fighters, and after the second he took a point from Cotto -- somewhat angrily, at that.And, excuse me, rematch? Zab Judah at this point hasn’t won a fight since May of 2005. He is 0-3 with one No Contest since then. Granted, his outing against Cotto was his best performance of the four, but if he wants a rematch with somebody maybe he ought to go finish his fight with Ruben Galvan.

“I expected a tough fight, and that’s what I got,” said Cotto, whose record is 30-0 after the victory. (Judah is now 34-5.) “He landed some good punches, but I was very well prepared for that.”

Cotto added that he could “feel myself taking over the fight round by round,” which is an apt a summation of what happened. It was almost as if the energy and confidence were being transferred from one to the other as the fight wore on.

The win does make Cotto-Mayweather the next superfight on the horizon, but let’s not be in a rush. For one thing, Miguel deserves some time to savor this one. For another, it is a fight that needs to take place not in Vegas but in New York, and if that means waiting until June 7, 2008, what the hell? We can wait.

Before the year is out promoter Arum apparently intends to send Humberto Soto after the entire Pacquiao family. The Mexican lightweight took care of the first half of his brief Saturday night, dispatching Manny’s less talented brother Bobby via a 7th-round KO, after which he called out the 2006 Fighter of the Year.

Pacquiao went down in the first round from a left hook to the body followed by a right to the head, and by the fifth he was bleeding profusely from a cut above his right eye. In the seventh, Soto nailed him with a straight right that buckled his knees, and when Soto followed it with a left to the body, Paquiao went down again, and, his head seemingly resting on the turnbuckle, took Gary Rosato’s count on all fours.

“I thought Bobby fought very bravely,” said trainer Freddie Roach, “but he caught a couple of good shots. Soto is just too strong for him.”

Soto did not disagree. He already seemed to be thinking about Bobby’s brother, whom he will tentatively face on Oct. 6.

“Bobby is a real warrior,” said Soto, “but Manny is much busier. Manny throws a lot more punches, and he hits harder.”

He will find out soon enough. Soto improved to 42-5-1 with the victory, while Pacquiao fell to 27-13-3.

Saturday night’s card did allow for one instance of family revenge, as Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. knocked out Grover Wiley, the man who had retired his illustrious father, in the third round.

Wiley (30-10-1), an Oklahoma journeyman, was never really in this one. In the opening round Chavez caught him with a hard left to the body that sent him sliding to the floor. Another body shot put Wiley down again in the third, and after yet another, Wiley pitched forward and took referee Eddie Claudio’s count on his knees.

“He caught me with a liver shot in the first round,” said Grover. “And he must have hit me there 20 more times. I had no chance.”

Chavez, 32-0-1 after the win, now gets to sit back and see how Arturo Gatti handles Alfonso Gomez next month. If Gatti prevails, his next fight will likely be on HBO against Chavez in November.

Yuri Foreman had promised he would be at the top of his game for his bout against Anthony Thompson, which opened the PPV telecast, and he had to be. After ten rounds Thompson had thrown more punches (527-480) and landed incrementally more (144-136), but the Belarus-born New York middleweight withstood Thompson’s late rally to prevail by split decision.

There were no knockdowns, but an apparent clash of heads in the ninth left Foreman bleeding from a scalp wound. Thompson drew a warning from referee Charlie Fitch for a low blow in the same stanza.

Judges Ron McNair (97-97) and Frank Lombardi (96-94) favored Foreman (now 23-0), while Tony Paolillo scored it 96-94 for Thompson (23-2).

“I came to fight, but he didn’t really want to fight,” said Thompson, who appeared stunned by the decision. “I fought the fight. He just grabbed and made it look real ugly out there.”

Peter (Kid Chocoate) Quillen failed to put away his opponent for just the second time in 13 pro fights, but the New York middleweight did post a comfortable decision over Philadelphian Jamaal Davis (7-2) to remain unbeaten. Paolillio and Robin Taylor both scored it An 80-72 shutout for Quillen (13-0), while Joe Ware gave Davis a round at 79-73.

New Jersey middleweight Wayne Johnsen (16-1) floored Anthony Bartinelli (19-10-2) with a straight right early in the first, but the game Arizonan got up and battled for six more rounds. One judge, McNair, saw the knockdown as the only difference between the two, scoring it 57-56, while Lombardi (60-59) and Paolillo (59-54) saw it as a runaway for Johnsen.

Puerto Rican junior featherweight Jesus Rojas (7-0) won a unanimous decision over resilient Coloradan Torrance Daniels (9-3-1). There were no official knockdowns, although Daniels was down on three occasions, all ruled slips by Rosata. Rojas prevailed by scores of 59-55 twice (McNair and Ware) and 58-56 (Paolillo).

Unbeaten Dominican junior lightweight Algenis Menez required just over a minute to dispose of his Long Island opponent Bobby Campbell in their scheduled six-round prelim. Mendez floored Campbell with right hands twice before the first minute was out, and then decked him again with a left to the body, prompting Rosada to stop it at 1:46 of the first. Mendez is now 4-0, Campbell 2-3-2.

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X-PLOSIVE!
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
NEW YORK CITY
June 9, 2007

WELTERWEIGHTS: Miguel Cotto, 146 1/2, Caguas, Puerto Rico TKO’d Zab Judah, 145, Brooklyn, N.Y. (11) (Retains WBA title)

MIDDLEWEIGHTS: Yuri Foreman, 156 1/4, Gomel, Belarus dec. Anthony Thompson, 156 3/4, Philadelphia, Penn. (10)

Peter Quillen, 160, New York dec. Jamaal Davis, 161, Philadelphia, Penn. (8)

Wayne Johnsen, 161, Newark, N.J. dec. Anthony Bartinelli, 161, Phoenix, Ariz. (3)

JUNIOR MIDDLEWEIGHTS: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., 150, Culiacan, Mexico KO’d Grover Wiley, 149 1/2, Omaha, Neb. (3)

LIGHTWEIGHTS: Humberto Soto, 131, Los Mochis, Mexico TKO’d Bobby Pacquiao, 131, General Santos City, Philippines (7)

JUNIOR LIGHTWEIGHTS: Algenis Mendez, 129 1/2, San Juan, D.R. TKO’d Bobby Campbell, 130, Bethpage, N.Y. (1)

JUNIOR FEATHERWEIGHTS: Jesus Rojas, 120 1/4, Caguas, P.R. dec. Torrance Daniels, 121, Colorado Springs, Colo. (6

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