A Confession and a Knockout
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I have a confession to make. After interviewing Joshua Clottey a few days before his first championship title fight against Antonio Margarito, I found myself hoping that he would be crowned the new WBO Welterweight Champion. During the interview, Clottey spoke respectfully of his opponent and through his thick accent, I could hear in his voice that not only was he genuine but he believed in himself and that he had no doubt that he would win the fight. Last Saturday night in the early going, it looked like he just might be right.
Clottey dominated the first four rounds of the fight, throwing several straight rights and huge uppercuts. Margarito began to get a little more aggressive in the third round but Clottey covered up well. Margarito turned up the aggression even further in the fifth round, throwing an array of one-two shots and capturing his first round.
The fifth round was the turning point in the fight. Margarito showed why he is the WBO Welterweight Champion and threw great jabs and combinations throughout the rest of the contest. It was also clear that Clottey had injured his hand after the fifth round and was reluctant to throw punches and fighting only defensively. He made some attempts in the eighth round to get back into the fight, landing some nice left hooks and would also close strongly in the last round ,trading big blows with Margarito.
I scored the fight 116-112 for Margarito, who won the fight by unanimous decision. Margarito’s record improved to 34-4-1 (28), while Clottey’s dropped to 30-2-1 (20). Although I admit to cheering for Clottey, I felt I was still fair and unbiased in my scoring and in my opinion I feel if he had not injured his hand the outcome of the fight would have been different. Clottey is only 29 years old and I feel he has yet to hit his prime. I look forward to his deserved future success.
The main event featured Miguel Cotto making his welterweight debut against undefeated Carlos Quintana for the WBA Welterweight Championship vacated by Ricky Hatton.
Both fighters came out aggressively in the first round. Cotto threw a nice hook to the body which was answered by a Quintana straight right. Big shots were landed by both fighters. Cotto took the second round by landing several left hooks, working both the head and body. The next two rounds were competitive with a lot of action; Quintana seemed to outbox Cotto and offered a strong defense.
Quintana went into the fifth attempting to build on his last two rounds, outboxing Cotto. Cotto answered by fighting southpaw and landing big shots to the champion’s head and a devastating left hook to the body that took Quintana down.
Quintana was up before the eight count but was obviously hurt and was down again moments later from another body blow. He beat the count again and continued for the remaining few seconds of the round before the bell rang. Quintana’s trainer urged him to continue and fight one more round but the fighter made it known that he did not want to go on.
The fight was called off right before the start of the sixth round by the referee, giving Cotto the TKO victory and the WBA Welterweight Championship. Cotto improved to 28-0 (23), while Quintana suffered his first loss, dropping to 23-1 (18).
Miguel Cotto made an impressive welterweight debut, showing that he has the punching power to be a strong force in the division.