ST. LOUIS, Missouri, 7 February 2005 — Zab Judah stopped Cory Spinks in the ninth round here Saturday to seize the undisputed welterweight world title.

Referee Armando Garcia stepped in at 2:49 of the ninth round of the scheduled 12-round bout in Spinks’s hometown. The champion had already survived one knockdown earlier in the round.

Judah, himself a two-time former champion, improved to 33-2 with 24 wins inside the distance and avenged a loss by unanimous decision to Spinks last April.

Spinks, who was defending the World Boxing Council, World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation belts before an enthusiastic home crowd of more than 20,000 at the Savvis Center, fell to 34-3. A straight left from Judah spelled the beginning of the end for Spinks in the ninth. Shortly after it landed Spinks went down amid a barrage of blows.

He beat the count before another left saw him sag downward again, although it wasn’t ruled a knockdown as an arm over the ropes arrested his fall.

But as Judah continued to advance, Garcia flung himself between the fighters to call a halt.

“He hit me with a good shot,” Spinks conceded. “I felt I could continue ... I was a little groggy, but I could have continued.”

Judah had appeared to knock down Spinks at the end of the seventh, but Garcia ruled his slump toward the canvas came after the bell. Judah, who found little way in against the champion in the evenly matched first half of the fight, pressed his advantage in the eighth as he sought to expunge the memory of their first meeting, in Las Vegas last April.

Spinks controlled the early part of that fight, too, and knocked Judah down in the 11th before the challenger came back to knock Spinks down in the 12th.

That fiery finish was to no avail, and Judah had vowed to make a faster start this time around.

“I’ve been telling everybody, I’m going to knock him out,” Judah said. “Cory Spinks is a great boxer, but I was determined.”

Spinks, son of former heavyweight world champion Leon Spinks and nephew of former champion Michael Spinks, had won his previous five fights.

He claimed the IBF welterweight title on March 22, 2003 with a victory over Michele Piccirillo. On December 13 of the same year he captured the WBA and WBC belts with a decision over Nicaragua’s Ricardo Mayorga.

He said he wanted another shot at Judah.

“I gave him a rematch, I hope he does the same,” Spinks said.