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Saturday at New York
Welterweight
Miguel Cotto W12 Joshua Clottey
Retains a welterweight title
Scores: 116-111, 115-112 Cotto, 114-113 Clottey
Records: Cotto, 34-1, 27 KOs; Clottey, 35-3, 21 KOs
Rafael's remark: There's nothing quite like the atmosphere and excitement of a Cotto fight at hallowed Madison Square Garden on the eve of the annual National Puerto Rican Day parade. It's always a festive scene, and for the fourth time in the past five years, Cotto headlined on the weekend and gave his fans something to cheer about. Most of the heavily Puerto Rican crowd of 17,734 was staunchly in Cotto's corner, cheering wildly for him as he made the first defense of the vacant welterweight belt he picked up with a dominant fifth-round knockout of England's Michael Jennings at the Garden in February.
But this time, Cotto was facing Clottey, a far more dangerous, durable and quality opponent. Clottey is world-class and had given up his own version of the 147-pound crown to make the fight possible rather than face a mandatory challenger for a fraction of the money he made against Cotto. The result was an excellent, high-level HBO fight between two of the best in the star-studded weight class. However, this was no robbery, as some are calling it. Please.
Cotto, two fights removed from his 11th-round knockout loss to Antonio Margarito (whom many believe faced Cotto with loaded hand wraps and cheated his way to victory) last summer, overcame a scenario similar to the one he faced in that fight. Like Margarito, Clottey -- a native of Ghana living in the Bronx (but getting almost no crowd support in his adopted hometown save for a few fans displaying Ghanaian flags up in the nosebleed seats) -- is a rough, physical fighter. The fight played out in a similar fashion to Margarito-Cotto in that Cotto was a bit dominant early until Clottey got rolling in the middle rounds and began imposing himself on Cotto, who was cut and fading slightly. But this time, Cotto hung in there like a champ and was unlikely being hit by a guy with plaster on his fists.
Cotto scored a flash knockdown in the first round, which was worth a valuable extra point on the scorecards, and overcame a brutal gash in his left eyebrow from an accidental head butt in the third round. The blood flowed freely from the cut for most of the rest of the fight and certainly had an impact on Cotto's ability to see Clottey's right hand coming. After the fight, Cotto needed six stitches in a cut below his eye and 14 in the bad one above his eye, according to Top Rank spokesman Lee Samuels. Given that adversity, Cotto gets a gold star for showing heart.
Clottey can complain that he was robbed all he wants, and some contrary fans and writers can join the chorus, but the reason he didn't win is because of his own shortcomings, not poor judging. Clottey had ample opportunity to put the fight in the bag, but he did not do it. He let Cotto off the hook, especially late in the fight, but he was posing too much, going long stretches without being active and he simply did not let his hands go against an opponent at a serious disadvantage because of the cut. Cotto, meanwhile, fought all three minutes of the rounds and fought smart. Can't say the same for Clottey, and it cost him dearly.
The win sets the stage for what would undoubtedly be an action-packed fight between Cotto and pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao. Top Rank's Bob Arum talked up that fight big-time after Cotto's win, and Pacquiao was ringside. It could happen this fall, but it remains to be seen exactly what will go down, especially in light of the postponement of Floyd Mayweather's comeback fight against Juan Manuel Marquez because of a training injury. Perhaps Mayweather will try to bypass Marquez and go right to the monster fight against Pacquiao. Either way, there are some big fights in store for the fall.
As for Clottey, he's still one of the best welterweights in the world, and Arum promised him another significant fight. One that he won't get is a rematch with Cotto, not when there are so many other fights fans want to see. But maybe Clottey will get an opportunity against titlist Andre Berto. Maybe even Shane Mosley would fight him if Mosley can't land Pacquiao. Clottey could also move up in weight and look for a fight with Paul Williams, Sergio Martinez or Kermit Cintron, all of which would be interesting bouts worthy of the HBO platform.
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