By Mark Vester
At The Palms Casino in Las Vegas, a showdown of New York welterweights saw Joshua Clottey (35-2, 20 KOs) win a technical nine-round unanimous decision over former champion Zab Judah (36-6, 25 KOs). The scores were 86-85, 87-84 and 86-85 for Joshua Clottey. With the win, Clottey won the vacant IBF welterweight championship.
In the first, Clottey stayed back as Judah would come in and out with his jab to the head and body. Clottey was able to pick a lot of the punches off. Clottey would make it more of an inside fight in the second, with Judah doubling and tripling his jab to keep him away.
In the ninth, a cut opened up on the right eyelid of Judah from a clash of heads. The doctor felt that Judah could not see and told the ref to stop the fight. Because the injury came from a foul, the fight went to the scorecards.
Clottey began to pick up the pace in the fourth with the harder punches, digging to the body and started to slow Zab down. The fight saw Zab try to come back with some combinations, but Clottey was still pushing him back with the crisper blows.
Judah's showed flashes of the old Zab in sixth when he used combination punching and movement to land some hard shots and avoid the some counters. Clottey came right back in the seventh by busting Zab up with some hard rights.
Clottey would rule the majority of the eight and just when Judah looked like a beaten man, he came back with several combinations to the head and body in the final minute.
Given Clottey's tough decision loss to Antonio Margarito in December 2006, the wheels are rolling for a possible rematch at the end of the year.
Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingscene@hotmail.com
