-
-
Clottey has certainly had a difficult road, despite having some of the best fundamental skills of the group at WW.Comment
-
Yes, it's a big shame. Only 20 fights into a brilliant prospective career and never having fought someone of that level, he just simply gave Baldomir no chance. Any other welterweight and they would have been knocked out mid way through the fight. Luckily for Baldomir he has a spectacular chin and was taking the shots without being overly hurt, but he was taking a lot and some of them were brutally hard and flush shots.
Not only was it such a terrible decision that should have gone to Clottey and kept him as an undefeated 21-0 new WBC International Welterweight Champion, but it threw him into a really long, arduous wait for another title shot. I think once anyone saw what he did to Baldomir they just stayed right away from him and it was easy for them because he was unknown.
So, what should have been just the first in a long and successful welterweight championship run ended up with him struggling along getting nowhere, as everyone and their dog avoided him, and having to wait seven years just to get another title shot. Even then he had the bad luck of screwing up his most important weapon, his left hand, in that fight after dominating the first five rounds against Margarito and didn't get true recognition until the Corrales fight which, unfortunately for Corrales, was a terrible move on his teams part.
He nonetheless had to wait another two years after the Marg fight to get his next title shot against Judah which I'm sure everyone already knows he won well in a surprisingly good fight.
I think the main thing is the fact that this absurd decision, by what seems to be an obviously corrupt official, stalled for so long one of the best welterweight talents we have seen in a very long time. Not only did he not get a rematch, rather obvious why, but he would not even get a single title shot for all that time in between and had to struggle to even get a good fight. About the only good thing that may have come from it was some of the better prospects at welterweight, or their teams, may have thought of him as a good stepping stone as it may have seemed that he had only stepped up to the plate once and lost it, whereas in actual fact he was probably the best welterweight in the world and so got a couple of young undefeated prospects in Richard Gutierrez and Shamone Alvarez to beat up.
Anyway, it is finally The Hitter's time, and about damn time too, and while he may be on the other side of his prime years I think he still has what it takes, as long as he gets the shot, to beat every welterweight out there today on his best night. I'm very much looking forward to his next fight with Cintron which should be a real barn-burner. A must win fight for both guys, Clottey defending his newly won title and Cintron trying to come back into title contention after his second devastating loss to Margarito. It's a big fight for both guys and both need to perform well. If Clottey does perform it may finally lead to the big fights he has been deserving of for so long and some good money for him instead of the meager purses he has been getting.
Just watching the second round again, and the only warning Baldomir gets throughout the entire fight was at the start of the round. Every time they get in close he grabs with his left arm, either around the neck or around Clottey's own arm. Highly frustrating to watch as Clottey tries to just fight but is hindered by Baldomir and his holding as well as the moronic referee and his dodgy calls.
It really is such a pity that during his best years he was relegated to a backseat position due to this disgusting decision fighting nobodies in Ghana or has-beens, never-has-beens and a few good prospects in America when we should have been seeing him in with all the best welterweights of the last eight years or so. Baldomir out of the way, he could have been having big fights over the years with everyone from Cotto, Williams, Margarito, Judah, to the big guys like Oscar and Mayweather.Comment
-
I will have to rewatch it. To me itt looked like Clottey started out well and started to fall apart so he started fouling intentionally.Comment
-
Ill have to rewatch the Baldomir fight, cause I got a different impression than you guys describe. Seemed to me like he was looking for a way out.
Anyway this whole Joshua "the Greatest" Clottey thing is a myth. He slowed down against Margarito because he gassed out, and was intimidated that Margarito wasnt backing down. Margarito hurt his hand worse in that fight than Clottey did, he still beat his ass from pillar to post all night long.
Clottey is a good fighter, but his diamond in the rough persona is being way over stated. He will never be the number 1 WW in the world, he just doesnt have what it takes.Comment
-
We have a similar take on the Baldomir / Clottey fight however I disagree with you on the Margarito fight, but I admit I never carefully looked at all the facts in either fight. My memory is believing that Clottey's injury was sincere, and that Margarito was possibly claiming his own injury to be as bad or worse so that his victory would't be diminished in the eyes of the public. But maybe it was real. I have a vague memory of Margarito in a cast maybe?
But, Margarito likely had loaded gloves in that fight and maybe that contributed to Clottey's injury? Also, why would anyone ever believe anything that ever came out of Margarito's mouth at this point anyways? And, Margarito and his camp avoided Clottey for a very long time and their lies about Clottey not wanting the fight are well documented. So much so that Clottey had to even publicly state he wanted the fight.
One thing is how dramatic the change was in the Clottey / Margarito fight. It wasn't like he was slowly wearing down, there seemed to be a dramatic and clear change which leads me to believe he was telling the truth. Wasn't Clottey's injury documented? How about Tony's? Was his?Comment
Tweet
Ciminale Franco. Never heard of him.
Comment