Boxing: Zab Judah Retains Title, And Travis Simms Wins Again

Associated Press - December 13, 2003


ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Barely breaking a sweat, super welterweight Zab Judah stopped unknown Jaime Rangel in the first round Saturday night.

The fight was part of the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins-William Joppy fight.

Judah, the WBO champion, landed a crushing overhand left to the head and added another punch, dropping Rangel. The 32-year-old Colombian, fighting in the United States for the first time, tried to wrap his arm around Judah's neck as he fell to the canvas at 1:12 of the first round.

``I said all along I wanted to come here and steal the show,'' Judah said. ``I stole the press conference the other day and I think tonight I've already stolen the show.''

Judah, 26, is pushing for a rematch with IBF champion Kostya Tszyu and looked crisp, even if he didn't get much of a workout.

``I hit him with my left hand and I knew I had him hurt,'' Judah said. ``I put him out with my right. It was a strong shot.''

In a battle of unbeaten super welterweights, Travis Simms surprised Alejandro Garcia by stopping him the fifth round.

Simms (23-0), of Norwalk, Conn., had his hands full with Garcia for the first two rounds before asserting himself in the third and fourth.

In the fifth, the two were coming out of a clinch and just starting to step away from each other when the left-handed Simms unloaded a left hook that knocked Garcia (22-1) on his back, ending the fight at 1:41 of the fifth. In doing so, he won a version of the 154-pound championship.

The crowd in Boardwalk Hall booed the knockout when it was shown on replay on a screen above the ring, but Simms called it clean.

``He was looking at the ref to break us up, and that's when I hit him,'' Simms said.

In other undercard bouts:

- Luis Perez retained his IBF junior bantamweight title, outlasting former champion Felix Machado in a rematch of the left-handers' Jan. 5 fight.

Perez (22-1), of Managua, Nicaragua, overpowered Machado (23-5) in the early rounds, rocking him with three- and four-punch combinations. Machado, of Bolivar, Venezuela, boxed gamely but took a beating, fighting with his left eye nearly swollen shut by the end of the 12-round battle.

- Unbeaten WBC cruiserweight champion Wayne Braithwaite won his 20th straight bout, knocking out Luis Pineda in the first round of a scheduled 12-rounder.

Braithwaite escaped unscathed from a barrage of hard punches by a quick-starting Pineda (21-2), who pinned him against the ropes immediately after the opening bell. Returning to the center of the ring to square off, he landed a left to the body and then a solid right to the head, dropping Pineda at 1:27.

- IBF junior flyweight champion Victor Burgos fought WBA champion Rosendo Alvarez to a lively 12-round draw.

Fighting toe-to-toe from the opening bell, neither went down or was ever in trouble, although Alvarez (32-2-2) was warned for a low blow in the ninth and a head butt in the 10th.

Judge Al Bennett had it 116-133 for Burgos, Phillippe Verbeke had Alvarez 116-112 and Al Devito scored it 114-114. Burgos, of Puebla, Mexico, went to 35-13-3.