Welterweight Joshua Clottey (33-2, 20 KOs) put in a workmanlike performance on Thursday, if not impressive, in winning a 12-round unanimous decision over previously undefeated Shamone Alvarez (19-1, 11 KOs) at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 116-112, 118-110. Clottey, 30, fought most of the fight in a relaxed manner, rarely exerting himself except to throw an occasional pot shot at Alvarez.
Still, however, Clottey faded in the last two couple, as he usually does, allowing Alvarez to make the fight closer than it normally should have been. The victory earns Clottey a shot at International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron, if he’ll choose to fight him, that is. At the present time, Cintron is nursing an injured hand, but after that, he’ll possibly opt to take a match against WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams rather than Clotty, mainly because the bout would give him a much bigger payday.
Clottey started off fighting cautious, doing very little in the first couple of rounds other than studying Alvarez, and throwing a rare right hand. The southpaw Alvarez, 30, used his combinations and a accurate jab to take bout of the first two rounds, although he used very little power in his shots. It seemed as if Alvarez, not a particularly hard puncher to begin with, made it a point to take power off his shots, instead focusing on throwing a lot of shots in an effort to keep Clottey preoccupied.
The third was close, with both fighters doing little to show superiority. As in the previous two rounds, Alvarez outworked Clottey, hitting him with shots to the body and head. Around this time, Clottey began to dive in with his shots, sometimes connecting with powerful left hooks and right hands, and other times head-butting Alvarez. For the remainder of the fight, Clottey would ram heads with Alvarez frequently, causing Clottey to warnings from Jay Nady but not point deductions.
From rounds four to six, Clottey took control of the fight with his more powerful shots, showing that he was a class above Alvarez in overall skills. Alvarez continued to throw a lot of punches, but he tended to use more ring movement to avoid getting hit with Clottey’s hard shots.
In the seventh round, Clottey eased up and appeared to take the round off, as he let Alvarez out land him almost two to one in the round. However, in the next three rounds, Clottey once against got back in gear, although still fighting very relaxed, as if he were intentionally trying to avoid tiring out as he’s done in his recent bouts against Antonio Margarito, Felix Flores and Diego Corrales.
In rounds eleven and twelve, Clottey once again slowed down with his offensive attacks, and mostly covered up while Alvarez attacked. In the last round, Clottey threw very little, opting to run, perhaps because he knew he had the fight in the bag and wanted to preserve his brittle hands.