Cotto dominates, stops Judah in the 11th

Promoter Bob Arum called Saturday night’s Miguel Cotto-Zab Judah fight a “coming-out party” for Cotto, a chance for the country’s boxing fans to recognize and appreciate the talent and potential of his welterweight champion.

Anybody who watched the pay-per-view event, and certainly the sellout crowd of 20,658, had to be impressed with Cotto, who dominated Judah and won on an 11th-round technical knockout.

It was by no means easy. Judah, despite two low blows that left him writhing on the canvas, and an injured right eye that was partially shut by the end of the fight, produced a spirited effort, repeatedly scoring with left uppercuts.

“I expected a tough fight and that’s exactly what I got,” said Cotto, who improved to 30-0 with 25 knockouts in defending his World Boxing Assn. title. “He sure landed some great punches, but I was prepared for them. I expected them. I could tell, round by round, I was taking over the fight.”

Judah, who bloodied Cotto’s lip and cut him over the right eye, chose to dwell on the low blows, which came in the first and third rounds.

“I felt they were intentional,” said Judah (34-5, two no-decisions, 25). “Those two low blows took a lot out of me. I want a rematch.”

By the end, Judah, the vision in his right eye impaired, took a knee in the ninth round and went down from a Cotto combination in the 11th.

He rose to his feet, but when Cotto continued his attack, causing Judah to sag against the ropes, referee Arthur Mercante stepped in at the 49-second mark and stopped the fight.

Cotto had made a statement in his biggest fight, against his toughest opponent. In his coming-out party, he had come out fighting.

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In the semi-main event, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. got the revenge he was looking for against the man who defeated his father, solidly beating Grover Wiley. Chavez (32-0-1, 25) knocked down Wiley (30-10-1, two no-decisions, 14) once in the first round and twice in the third.

Chavez did all his damage with body shots. On the third knockdown, Wiley, who has now lost five of his last six fights, sat on his knees as referee Eddie Claudio counted him out at the 2:27 mark of the round. Wiley’s only victory in his last six matches came against Chavez Sr., 43 at the time, in what turned out to be the Mexican legend’s farewell fight.

In a preliminary fight between super featherweights, Humberto Soto (42-5-2, one no-decision, 26) knocked out Bobby Pacquiao (27-13-3, 12) at 1:48 of the seventh round of a scheduled 10-rounder.

Pacquiao, who touched the canvas on a flash knockdown in the first round and had a deep cut over his right eye that caused considerable bleeding in the latter rounds, finally succumbed to a right hand followed by a left hook to the body. Pacquiao dropped to his knees near his corner and, with his back to Soto, buried his face in the ropes as he was counted out.

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Antonio Tarver regained the International Boxing Organization light-heavyweight title on a 12-round decision over Elvir Muriqi at Hartford, Conn. The 38-year-old Tarver (25-4) hadn’t fought since losing the title to Bernard Hopkins a year ago.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

steve.springer@latimes.com