I respect Clottey a lot more as a boxer after last night but my previous opinion of him as a front runner and someone who would rather lose due to an excuse than give his all has only been reinforced.

Prior to this fight I had always regarded him as a Sakio Bika type, a tough very strong guy who would give anybody a workout but was unlikely to trouble the world's best. My opinion on that has changed, his boxing ability and technical skills are far greater than Sakio Bika's level, he is a genuine world class performer imo.

However he does not have a champion's heart. We saw against Margarito how when the action started going against him he chose to shut down and blame his hands rather than fight and risk gettting stopped and again yesterday his rather pathetic and imo cowardly antics to get points deducted, first from the push and then in the last round from the punch to the back of the head meant he will never be one of my favourites.


Cotto has a champions heart, absolutely no question, badly cut due to a headbutt, he made no fuss at all, never once complained to the referee or his corner and never looked for a way out or help from the ref.

When it came down to who wanted it more, and who was prepared to dig the deepest Clottey preferred to look for point deductions and excusese rather than grab the fight with his own hands.

Had Cotto been in Clottey's position he would have won absolutely no question. He would have made no fuss about a fake knee injury, he wouldn't have sought to claim points via fouls and no way would he have let Clottey off the hook over those final rounds.

With the controversey surrounding the hand wraps in the Margarito fight Cotto in my mind has yet to be truly beaten. He has shown the heart of a champion and to me absolutely deserved the victory last night.

Clottey for all his talent and toughness simply doesn't get going when the going the gets tough, and because of that he will never be great.