WATCH: Police Once Had to Step in Inside the Ring to Save Floyd Mayweather After an Infamous Brawl

Published 07/18/2022, 6:30 AM EDT

Back in 2006, Floyd Mayweather was set to challenge Zab Judah for the IBF Welterweight championship. Mayweather was moving up a weight class to face Judah in his 36th professional fight and the bout was hyped as ‘Sworn enemies’ facing each other. But despite the build-up, everything did not go according to plan, as Judah suffered a loss to Carlos Baldomir and lost his status as the undisputed champion.

This led to the bout being only for the IBF championship, which tarnished the hype before the fight. Moreover, this also meant that Judah would come into the fight as an underdog, even though he was the champion at the time.

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Floyd Mayweather vs Zab Judah

As it turned out, Judah would feed off of his underdog status and prove his critics wrong at the start of the fight. He started out in a strong fashion, keeping up with Mayweather’s relentless pace and pressure, even knocking down Mayweather in the second round. But it would not count as referee Richard Steele ruled it a slip.

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However, from the fifth round, Mayweather seemed to have ignited a fire in himself which was missing in the previous rounds as he took control of the fight, constantly keeping Judah under pressure by walking him down and ripping his body to set up clean strikes to the head. He also broke Judah’s nose, which caused Judah to bleed constantly, affecting his output as Money built up a comfortable point’s advantage till the fight reached its concluding rounds.

The brawl

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As the fight reached round 10, Mayweather had already built a comfortable lead over Judah and was set to be crowned the new champion. However, to his and everyone’s surprise, things took an unexpected turn when a frustrated and beaten-up Judah punched Mayweather under the belt, a foul which was clearly intentional.

This angered Mayweather’s uncle and former trainer Roger Mayweather, who got into the ring to confront Judah and his camp. What ensued next was a brawl between the two camps, which took four minutes for order to be restored with security and even the police getting involved. However, the fight resumed with Mayweather dominating Judah for the rest of the bout and becoming the IBF Welterweight champion.

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What did you think of this brawl? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by:

Sahil Sood is a Boxing writer at EssentiallySports. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication, and holds a keen interest in the 'sweet science'. His journey towards following boxing began when he first saw the highlights of Mike Tyson as a teenager, and then closely followed the rise of Floyd Mayweather.

Edited by:

Ajinkya Aswale

WATCH: Police Once Had to Step in Inside the Ring to Save Floyd Mayweather After an Infamous Brawl

Floyd Mayweather vs Zab Judah

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The brawl