By Manuel Perez: Making his first try at welterweight, Mike Alvarado (25-0, 18 KOs) stopped journeyman Emmanuel Clottey (24-9, 14 KOs) in the 10th round on Saturday night at the Mile High Stadium, in Denver, Colorado. Alvarado, 28, ended matters with a left-right combination with seconds to go in the bout, flattening Clottey and knocking him unconscious for a small length of time.
The referee stepped in and immediately stopped the bout at 2:55 of the 10th round when he saw the condition that Clottey was in. For Clottey, 34, the brother of IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey, it was the 2nd consecutive bout that he was stopped in the 10th round. Last time out, he was taken out by light welterweight Victor Ortiz in the 10th round on September 20th, 2007.
It had been over a year and half since Clottey had last fought and he looked it, showing a lot of rust. Though never a particularly good fighter in his prime, he was decent enough to give Ortiz a lot of problems before folding in the 10th in 2007.
Alvarado, who’s ranked number #14 in the WBO light welterweight division, dropped Clottey with a left-right combination at the start of the 4th round. Other than that, Alvarado looked very basic, fighting flat footed for the most part, and throwing mainly jabs. He looked small for a welterweight and not particularly fast either. He showed good power at times but I think it’s safe to say that Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley, Andre Berto and Joshua Clottey all have nothing to worry about from him.
Alvarado might be better off moving back down in weight, if he had hopes of staying at welterweight, because he doesn’t seem nearly big enough at this weight class and his skills are much too basic to compete against the more versatile fighters at this weight. Even at light welterweight, I don’t see him as being more than a gatekeeper fighter, one good enough to beat many of the fighters in the division but probably not good enough to beat the skilled light welterweights like Ricky Hatton, Junior Witter, Timothy Bradley or Kendall Holt.
Against Clotty on Saturday night, Alvarado did little more than throw jabs every round while occasionally mixing in some hooks and right hands. In the 9th and 10th rounds, he began loading up with his punches more in an attempt to score a knockout. He was having no look until he caught Clottey with a good left-right late in the 10th, dropping Clottey to the canvas.
If I was to grade Alvarado’s performance, I’d have to give him B. He did what he had to do against an opponent that was throwing absolutely nothing back at him for 10 rounds and the fight looked little more than a sparring match. Though he won all the rounds with his jabbing, he fought flat footed the whole time, looked predictable, one dimensional, and hardly good enough to beat any of the top welterweights in the division.
If he intends on staying at welterweight, I suppose he can serve the same gatekeeper purpose as I saw him having as a light welterweight. He’s not quick or powerful enough to beat the likes of Berto, Clottey, Mosley or Cotto and would likely take a one-sided beating if he ever gets up to that point.
If at all possible, he might want to consider moving down a couple of divisions and compete at lightweight. I think he might do good at that weight, because he could dehydrate down for the weigh-in and then rehydrate up to 150 and have a huge advantage against his opponents in terms of size and power. He still won’t be all that fast but his power and size would be enough to put him at the top of the division.
Comments are closed.