Boxing News Boxing News
MIguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey went to war last night over 12 hard rounds at New York’s fabled Madison Square Garden with Cotto emerging still in possession of his WBO Welterweight title by a narrow split decision.
Clottey showed a massive heart by taking everything the Puerto Rican star could dish out while coming back time and time again with rattling combinations of his own.
The bout proved difficult to score as the pair went at it in close quarters and a Cotto knockdown of Clottey in the very first frame proved to be the deciding factor in the clash.
Cotto, who was cut in the third from a clash of heads, had much of his successes early and enjoyed a good round in the sixth when he went all out to stop Clottey but the challenger survived the shelling.
Clottey roared back and battered Cotto over much of the second half of the bout and by the time the dust settled after the 12th frame, Cotto kept his WBO title by split decision scores of 116-111 and 115-112 while Clottey took the third card 114-113.
Cotto improves to 34-1 (27), winning for the second time after his only career loss while Clottey drops to 35-3 (20), after a six bout winning run is erased.
In the chief support bout on the bill, WBO light flyweight champ Ivan Calderon, 32-0-1 (6), fought challenger Rodel Mayo, 25-3-1 (19), to a standstill when their contest was declared a technical draw in the sixth due to Calderon suffering bad cuts in the fourth.
Another close affair was on tap at The Garden as featherweight Juan Carlos Martinez, 16-11-1 (7), nearly produced an upset over six frames before losing to Rafael Guzman, 22-1 (16), by split decision.
