Baldomir Shocks Judah!

The first major fight of 2006 produced what may stand up as the biggest upset of the entire year. Unheralded Carlos Baldomir shocked undisputed welterweight champ Zab Judah with a close but unanimous decision. Judah - showing he's still a punk - started things off by punching Baldomir on the hip rather than touching gloves at the end of the referee's pre-fight instructions. Judah took the early rounds and, as expected, appeared to be cruising towards a decision win. The fight turned early in round seven when Baldomir caught Judah flush with a straight right and chased a hurt Judah around the ring for the remainder of the round. Judah never really recovered and Baldomir simply outworked him the rest of the way -- taking five of the final six rounds on all three judges scorecards. Nevertheless, the fight still could have gone either way and it would have shocked no one if the judges had given a hometown decision to the champ. Instead, the judges did as they are instructed to do and scored the fight as they saw it -- 115-113, 114-113 and 115-112, all for Baldomir. Judah loses all three titles but Baldomir wins just one since he only paid the WBC the required sanctioning fees. After the fight, Judah blamed promoter Don King for running him around all week to promote the fight. Baldomir showed no interest in a rematch, instead targetting the fighter that was supposed to be Judah's next opponent -- Floyd Mayweather Jr..

In the co-feature, O'Neil Bell and Jean-Marc Mormeck produced an early fight-of-the-year candidate with the unified crusierweight title on the line. Mormeck was the stronger fighter early on but seeemed to tire as the fight wore on. Bell weathered Mormeck's early storm and came back to score a dramatic tenth round KO. Bell joins Evander Holyfield as the only unified champs in the 26-year history of the cruiserweight division.