By Ron Borges

LAS VEGAS - Floyd Mayweather was brilliant Saturday night. His uncle Roger? Now that's another story.

Nitwits abound in America, which is why Las Vegas exists. It takes advantage of them every day, deluding them into thinking they have a chance against a house with every card, spin and throw loaded against them. Roger Mayweather should know that.

A former world champion once known as "Black Mamba,'' he's lived for many years in Vegas, fought in its biggest arenas, won and lost world championships there before taking over the full-time training of his nephew, who just happens to be the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He understands well how both the city and its leading sport work. Yet he bit on a sucker's bet Saturday night after a well-beaten Zab Judah launched a desperation low blow so far below the Mason-Dixon line it was whistling "Dixie'' on its way to striking young Mayweather squarely in the center of his leather cup.

Mayweather bent over more in shock than in pain and Judah hammered him in the back of the neck, a rabbit punch that landed just before referee Richard Steele leapt between them to restore order. He sent each man to a neutral corner and gave Mayweather the required five minutes alone to gather himself. At that point everything was going wildly well for Mayweather despite this brief ache in his loins. He had started cautiously in the early rounds but took over the fight by the fifth and never relinquished it, pounding Judah repeatedly with the kind of body shots that make your urine red and a straight right hand to the center of Judah's face that had by then left his nose and mouth bloody.

Yet it was at that moment, like many a gambler who over reaches when the pile of chips in front of him is at its zenith, that Mayweather's uncle lost his mind and crapped out. He rushed into the ring, with an associate right behind him, even though there was still five seconds left in the round. This is universally recognized as grounds for immediate disqualification of your fighter because it puts both boxers at risk, distracts them and the referee from their work, is a signal you're throwing in the towel and gives one man a decided advantage over the other.

In this case it also nearly caused the packed house of over 15,000 to erupt into a riot at the Thomas and Mack Center. Suddenly the arena was a hip hop culture clash of East Coast rappers vs. their West Coast arch enemies, both sides rushing the ring until the police and arena security forced them back. Inside the ropes, a melee broke out that resulted in Judah's father rushing in and his son dropping the elder Mayweather with the best punch he threw all night.

Throughout all of this, the younger Mayweather stood in a neutral corner, a policeman protecting the only lethal guy in the ring. When it was finally cleared, Mayweather's trainer was banished to the locker room but no other action was taken, a decision by Steele that had Judah's promoter screaming bloody murder for he understood the door to the hen house had been opened for him by Roger Mayweather and it was chicken plucking time.

"The fighter had a third man in the ring,'' King said after Mayweather was awarded the IBF welterweight title and a deservedly lopsided decision after the fight was resumed with nothing changing but the size of the swelling around Judah's right eye. "No matter how you look at it, that's a disqualification. The fight was over when the man steps on the apron. He was in the ring chasing the fighter? You don't uphold that rule what are you doing? Roger Mayweather cost the boy the fight. They gotta do something.''

Not necessarily because this is Las Vegas, a place where everything is an illusion including the rules. Losers occasionally win there and winners eventually all lose. It's how it goes in a town where the only rule that means anything is the law of money. For the moment, the smart money is with Floyd Mayweather, Jr., even if a smart trainer apparently isn't.

Mayweather (36-0) certainly proved clearly superior once again on his way to winning his fourth world title (130, 135, 140, 147 pounds). That Steele might have felt it somehow unfair to deprive him of what he had so clearly earned because of the mania of his uncle may have been part of the referee's tortured reasoning. The other part may well have been that he quite rightly feared a riot could have broken out if the bout had not continued. Hence, the best way to quell the crowd's rising temperature was to put the two fighters back to work, which he did.

 

Regardless, King will try to make mischief here and he's got a case for once, not that that's ever stopped him. He has said he will file a protest with both the NSAC and the IBF, where he's likely to have the best chance of forcing at least an immediate rematch not that anything other than Roger Mayweather's comportment is likely to be different the second time around.

"Disqualify the guy and he can whip his ass again,'' King said of Mayweather, forgetting for the moment he was talking about his own fighter as well. "The boy is a great fighter.''

That has been clear for some time and was reaffirmed Saturday night until his uncle interfered when his nephew clearly didn't need any help. Mayweather was already smiling in the neutral corner as he waited to continue, well aware that Judah had no other way to get to him but by fouling. To his credit, Mayweather said he did not believe the blow was an intentional foul and not only made a point of touching gloves with Judah when they began boxing again but hugged him both before the final round and again after he appeared at the post-fight press conference.

All of that sportsmanship was exemplary, as was his performance in the ring, but regardless his uncle didn't belong in the ring with time still left in the 10th round and by coming in he put both his fighter and the crowd in jeopardy. For that the elder Mayweather will rightly be punished but unfair as it might be to Mayweather the Younger he should have been disqualified, not for his actions but for the actions of his relatives. That is harsh but he lives in a harsh landscape where difficult decisions have to be made.

 

Even he conceded later that the incident had an adverse effect on him, saying after the fight, "The confrontation threw me out of my comfort zone. Up to that point I was in my zone. Once that happened I decided I'd box the last two rounds and take the victory home.''

For the moment he took it and the IBF welterweight title belt home, although how long he keeps it will be up to the IBF and the Nevada Commission. The latter will do what it always does, which is nothing but try and argue that toothless suspensions and fine money have taken care of a problem far larger than that unless I miss my guess. As for the IBF, who knows?

Certainly they should be proud to number Mayweather among their champions since he is the best fighter in the world, yet they may also feel the need to back King, with whom they have had a long and sometimes shady relationship. Regardless of what anyone does however, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. will be fine. Unlike Zab Judah, he needs no one's title belt to define him. He is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and not even the behavior of his uncle or the actions of the IBF can change that.

Neither, frankly, would a disqualification because he had nothing to do with it. All he was doing was beating up an old friend when his uncle felt the need to hit on 19 in search of a blackjack and went bust. The real shame of it all is he should have taken his fighter with him, even though he deserved the victory he got.