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Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade Miguel Cotto proved that he has the heart of a champion retaining his WBO Welterweight title with a hard fought split decision victory over Joshua Clottey in front of nearly 18,000 fans.
In a fight that could have gone to either fighter the judges scored in favor of Cotto by scores of 116-111 and 115-112 while the score for Clottey was 114-113. Although many rounds could have been awarded to either fighter I felt Cotto had won a close decision by a score of 115-112.
The first round was one of the previously mentioned that could have gone to either fighter until Cotto 34-1 (27) delivered a jab near the end of the round that dropped Clottey 35-3 (21). It appeared to be a flash knock-down from a well-timed jab that caught Clottey as he was unbalanced.
After some back and forth action Cotto suffered a severe cut over his left eye from an accidental head-butt at the end of round three, which would bother him for the rest of the fight. In the post fight interview Cotto would later say that he could not see Clottey’s right coming for the last five rounds of the fight.
The fifth round was all Clottey as he took advantage of Cotto who was obviously bothered by the cut landing several accurate punches as Cotto pawed at the blood streaming from his eye. Clottey’s momentum in the round was interrupted when he came in on Cotto getting hung up on his shoulder and fell face first into the canvas as Cotto shrugged him off.
Clottey took a while to get to his feet complaining of an injury to his knee to which he was given some time to get to his feet and walk it off. As time was called Cotto could be seen in the neutral corner dripping blood as Clottey limped around the ring.
During the sixth round Cotto capitalized on Clottey’s limited movement due to his knee injury by backing him into a corner for most of the round. Although many of Cotto’s punches were blocked his aggression kept Clottey pinned in the corner with some of the combinations reaching their mark.
During the second half of the fight the lead that Cotto had built up on the scorecards began to narrow as Clottey battled back through his knee injury putting pressure on Cotto who was backing away from Clottey struggling with the blood coming from his eye.
Although Clottey clearly won some of the rounds several of them could have gone to either fighter as neither was willing to back down. The major difference in the two fighters was Clottey’s work rate clearly dropped as it seemed he was trying to adjust and avoid getting hit with Cotto’s left hook counter-punch which had become quite effective.
The final round (which was the deciding round for many ringside observers) showed a cautious Clottey not throwing many punches. Cotto threw punches in spurts and did enough to take the round which was not without some additional drama.
During the round Clottey held Cotto’s right arm between his arm and body as he turned away from Cotto who was delivering a left hook which ended up landing to the back of the head of Clottey. Clottey dropped to his knees holding the back of his complaining to the referee who ruled it an accident.
At the end of round both fighters raised their hands in victory. As Clottey raised his hands towards the pro-Cotto crowd they booed him to which he smiled and replied by waving his finger at them as if to say no, no, no I won the fight.
When ring announcer Michael Buffer read that Cotto had won the split decision victory Clottey yelled in disbelief feeling he had clearly won the fight. As I mentioned previously I personally scored the fight for Cotto but felt some rounds could have gone to either fighter. Clottey really seemed to let the fight get away from him by decreasing his work rate and not letting his hands go, especially in the final round.
With the victory Cotto remains high in the running for a possible mega-fight with Top Rank stable mate and pound for pound champion Manny Pacquiao in November.
In an interesting sub-plot the day after Cotto’s victory, Floyd Mayweather postponed his July pay-per-view bout with Juan Manuel Marquez due to a rib injury. The details on what happened are limited and the date has not been rescheduled yet.
Mayweather has caught a lot of attention from the media since announcing his “comeback” fight against Marquez the morning of the Pacquiao-Hatton event last month claiming that perhaps he was avoiding Pacquiao and not waiting one more day for the outcome of Pacquiao-Hatton before announcing the Marquez fight.
The timing of his rib-injury is interesting now that Cotto is on top of the short list of fighters that Pacquiao is considering for a November showdown. I would not be surprised if Mayweather does not reschedule the Marquez pay per view and looks to get a more lucrative fight with Pacquiao in the fall. Although it would be a shame for Marquez it would be a showdown the fans would support.
