By Bill Calogero
Photo © Mary Ann Owen/FightWireImages

Joshua Clottey may have convinced Diego Corrales to go down to the 140-pound division by winning a unanimous ten-round decision of their Welterweight bout, in Springfield, Missouri, but together they were able to produce a fight that was truly great for the sport of professional boxing.

Clottey seemed so much bigger and stronger than Corrales. His punches looked (and I am sure felt) much harder then Corrales was able to muster up. Add his accuracy and his ability to throw punches from various angles, made it an extremely tough night for the Former World Champion, Diego Corrales.

Corrales, on the other hand, was certainly not a sitting duck, waiting for Clottey’s onslaught. He too was able to throw and land many shots during the ten-round war. I think the difference in weight proved to be a major part of the reason Corrales could not seem to hurt Joshua Clottey at any point during the fight.

All in all, the fight was a battle from beginning to end. In the first, second, and third rounds, Clottey battered Corrales, landing hard punches in bunches. Corrales could not seem to defend against the onslaught.

From the forth round on, Clottey seemed to wait until the final minute before unleashing his fists to ensure the round would be his. To Corrales’ credit, as is the case with all of his fights, he was a warrior. He continued to battle on, throwing and landing many punches of his own, however for the most part, he was receiving more punishment that he was giving.

Clottey finally got to the extremely tough Corrales in the ninth round. Approximately halfway though the round, Clottey unleashed a barrage of punches, which finally staggered Corrales back towards the ropes. Following his prey, Clottey threw a hard left, followed by a devastating short right that sent Corrales down for the first time during the fight. Diego was up by the count of ten and somehow held on to survive the round.

Entering the tenth and final round with his face badly swollen and body bruised from the prior nine rounds of punishment administrated by Clottey, Corrales attempted to re-create a fairytale ending by coming out looking to knockout his opponent. However, this time, history was not going to repeat itself. Clottey landed another short right hook sending Corrales down for the second time during the bout. As Diego rose to his feet, he spit out his mouthpiece, resulting in referee Mike England to halt the action and take a point away. This move, which WAS justified, may of actually saved Corrales a KO defeat.

Instead, Corrales survived the round and put the fight into the judge’s hands.
The three judges at ringside scored the fight 97-90, 98-89 and 100-87 all in favor of Joshua Clottey. The DailySports.com scored the fight 96-91, also in favor of Clottey. Joshua Clottey improves to 31-2-1 NC (20 KOs), while Corrales drops to 40-5 (33 KOs).

In my opinion, one of the biggest problems with the sport of professional boxing today is that we are force-fed non-competitive bouts much too often. What has become all too common is to see fighters coddled for their entire career in hopes of padding records to get a World Title shot.

Although this works, and may be good for managers, promoters and in some cases the fighters themselves, it is BAD for boxing and it’s fans. What we get is one-sided fights. What’s worse is in most cases; they are Championship bouts offered ONLY on PPV. Not only do the fans, and ultimately the sport itself, lose in terms of quality, we lose in our pocket books as well.

This WAS NOT the case last Saturday night with the Clottey vs. Corrales bout! We were treated to a GREAT fight. The scores of the fight really do not indicate how good the bout was. I agree with the scores, it WAS truly a one-sided affair in terms of scoring, but make no mistake; this was a very entertaining fight. I also feel that referee Mike England did one of the best jobs as the third man in the ring that I have seen in a long time.

If you were able to dissect each of the two combatants, you would find that both of them fought well. They both are quality fighters and they both did what they wanted as per their respective game plans. However what we witnessed was not so much that one fighter was head and shoulders above the other in talent, but more that one fighter was physically bigger and stronger than the other. Because of his talent, the smaller man was able to make a great attempt in moving up two weight classes to fight a fighter ranked number four in the world and still be very competitive.

Corrales WAS competitive in this bout. In my opinion, he was just too small to fight a quality Welterweight like Joshua Clottey. My only question is why hasn’t Clottey gotten more opportunities against the current Welterweight Champions? Then again, who wants to fight a machine like Clottey? I will say this, The FANS want to see more of him, especially now!

This fight was a sleeper in terms of promotion. People in boxing all knew this was a questionable move for Corrales. He already has a reputation as a Champion caliber fighter. He has nothing else to prove. He could have easily gone to the Jr. Welterweight division or the Welterweight division for that matter and fought a much easier opponent. Instead, he went to one of the division’s best. He is a Warrior and I doubt anyone can argue that.

That did not help the promotion of this fight. Of all places, Clottey vs. Corrales ends up in Springfield, Missouri? Is that the ONLY place that would want this fight in basically a small venue? OK, Showtime broadcast it, so the world was able to see it, but no offense to anyone intended, Missouri? Please.

Another thing that really bothered me was the advertisement on Corrales’ trunks. Was Slugout.com the ONLY thing that Corrales was able to advertise on his trunks? Who in their right mind would EVER agree to support such a negative presence in boxing as Slugout.com? We are talking about Diego Corrales here! Are Corrales’ “people” trying to tell me that they were not able to locate a better sponsor than that? Come on fella's, you struck-out with that one. When his career is over, Diego Corrales will be remembered as one of the all-time greats. There were no other sponsorship opportunities available for one of the best in the business? How could Corrales’ people associate him with someone like that after all Diego has done for the sport? Maybe Corrales should hire a new team.

I am sure there is plenty of people out there who are kicking themselves in their respective asses on Easter Sunday for not having the fight at their venue, on their network or on their sponsorship money because the result of this match-up was nothing less than a GREAT fight. We needed this type of fight for professional boxing. Hopefully it has sent a message to the fans and Boxing’s “powers that be”.

Whether he knows it or not, Diego Corrales has sent a very powerful message to the world of boxing. What he was able to tell us is that the boxing public deserves to see the best. After all, what does being a professional mean? It’s supposed to mean the best of the best. Clottey vs. Corrales showed us that a proven fighter, like Corrales chose to move up in weight and fight one of the best fighters the division had to offer, rather than choose an easier fight.

Corrales has consistently proved he’s a warrior and wants to truly fight the best of the best in any division he competes in. The same MUST be said of Joshua Clottey. He too has fought the best of the best only to be sidestepped by the current collection of Welterweight Champions. Together, they performed in one of the best fights of the year thus far.

Neither one of these two fighters were concerned with where, how or when they would fight, rather choosing to focus on preparing themselves for a battle that ultimately takes place in a 20 by 20 ring. They both did just that and whether they realized it during training camp, I certainly hope they and the rest of the world realize that what these two warriors gave us was a great fight that not only was good for the fan watching either live in the “Show Me” State or via TV on the ShowTime cable network, this bout proved to be great for boxing as well. I hope more fighters; mangers and promoters follow their lead. The sport of boxing will benefit immensely if more and more of these caliber fights took place.

Thank you Joshua Clottey and Diego Corrales for being warriors and choosing to fight the best, in this case, each other. I for one appreciated your efforts and hope more of your colleges will follow your lead and choose to fight the best their divisions have to offer. It’s the best thing that can happen to boxing. After all, what’s better than seeing two fighters of equal ability fighting each other?

The most important thing that all boxing fans want to see is competitive fights. Competitive fights are good for boxing and should be the norm, not the exception. Again, Thank you Joshua Clottey and Diego Corrales for giving us what we as fans and the sport of professional boxing needs, especially now.