Las Vegas, NV (BoxingGurus.com) – Las Vegas boxing and controversy do go together better than peanut butter and jelly.

Last night, at the MGM Grand Casino was no different. “The Thunder Down Under” Kostya Tszyu (28-1-1, 23 KO) captured the IBF Junior Welterweight title and is now the undisputed Junior Welterweight king, holding the IBF, WBA and WBC titles. Tszyu stopped Zab “Super” Judah (27-1-0-1, 21 KO) at 2:59 of the 2nd round after landing a perfectly thrown right hook to the tip of Judah’s chin. Judah attempted to get up, but was clearly hurt badly and stumbled and fell again. Referee Jay Nady immediately stopped the fight when Judah fell the second time.

That is where all the controversy comes in. Jay Nady barely began a count before waving off the fight. After Judah got knocked down, and by the time Nady had put Tszyu in a neutral corner, Nady picked the count up at four. But Nady never got to five as he stopped the fight as soon as he saw Judah fall again.

Surprisingly, in such a huge fight, Nady did not give Judah the full 10 count to see if he was able to gain him composure and beat the count, especially since the round was basically over.

Nady defended his decision by saying, “He (Judah) was almost unconscious when he went down the first time and his equilibrium was so bad the second time…I thought if he got hit again he might have some real damage.”

Judah had totally dominated the 1st round, using his speed and quick lunging punches to land almost at will on Tszyu. Tszyu was hurt on a couple different occasions, but was never in real serious danger of going down.

The 2nd round was totally different as Tszyu was successful in his stalking style and closed the gap between him and Judah and eventually catching Judah in the last 10 seconds of the round.

“This was really not a big power shot, Tszyu said. “I’ve got much heavier punches, but this is right timing and right accuracy. This is my destiny.”

Judah struggles to get up after a vicious knockdown.

Judah reacted crazily in the ring after he cleared the cobwebs and realized what had happened. Judah went after Nady and put his glove to the throat of the referee. Judah had to be restrained and ultimately escorted out the ring to calm down back in his dressing room.

Judah was obviously upset with the outcome, but admitted he did caught with a good punch. “I got hit with a good shot. I went down. I just felt I was never given a chance for a count. It was a an early stoppage.”

Tszyu agreed with the referee’s decision. “The referee made the right decision to stop the fight, otherwise he (Judah) would be hurt very, very badly.”

The talk of a rematch was already rampant after the fight and both fighters had different takes if one would happen. Tszyu brought up how Judah said during prefight press conferences that this fight was winner takes all, meaning this is it, no rematch, so Tszyu doesn’t see why that should change any now, but he did leave the door open a bit. “You never know, we will see.”

Judah, on the other hand, said, “I will be looking for a rematch. I’m pretty sure he (Tszyu) wouldn’t want to win a fight this way.”

Both fighters had career high paydays for this fight. Judah made $1 million, while Tszyu took home $1.5 million.

TELVEISED UNDERCARD:

“The Baby-Faced Assassin” Francisco “Panchito” Bojado (9-0, 9 KO) took care of business very quickly again by destroying Mauro Lucero (34-9-1, 22 KO) with a one-punch knockout at 2:14 of the 1st round. There was very little action through most of the round, but then both fighters threw left hooks at the same time and Bojado landed his first and ended the fight.

The knockout looked a bit shady as Lucero took the punch and stood on his feet looking unaffected for a few seconds and then went down to a knee and stood on the canvas for the entire ten count. The crowd was booing as they felt Lucero could have gotten up and that the punch wasn’t big enough to knockout someone who has taken no punishment to that point in the fight.

Bojado was clearly disappointed with Lucero’s effort, “I thought he could take a punch. As soon as I hit him, he decided to take a knee and then after that I expected him to get up. That wasn’t all my power.”