By Simon Hirst: Last night in Madison Square Garden in New York, Joshua Clottely lost via a split decision to Miguel Angel Cotto. The judges scored the bouts 114-113, 111-116 and 112-115 in favour of Cotto. The decision left a bitter taste in the mouth of Clottey and judging by the majority of fans, they aren’t impressed either.
I won’t say too much about the actual fight because there are other articles based on that. This is more to see what happens from here. I think the general feeling before the fight was it was a fight Cotto will win. There was questions asking whether Cotto would still be suffering hangover effects from the KO loss to Margarito. Some argued he might be due to the manner of the loss, some argued he wouldn’t due to Margarito’s using plaster in his gloves and I he hadn’t, then Cotto wouldn’t have lost. What was clear is very few gave Clottey too much of a chance.
However, once the two fighters are in the ring, it’s a different matter. Clottey fought much better than many expected seems to be the general feeling, although some might argue Cotto isn’t the same fighter since his loss.
During the fight, their was some controversy in the fight that effected the result. First of all, Cotto caught Clottey off balance with what seemed to be a jab and knocked him down. Clottey seemed to have won the round and the scored suddenly changed from 10-9 to 8-10.
In the third round, there was a accidentally clash of heads that cut Cotto on the left eyelid. This arguably had an effect on Cotto as he seemed unable to prevent some of Clottey’s attacks due to blood in his eye.
In round 5, Clottey fell awkwardly on his knee. He was in clear pain and was given time by the ref to rest it. He went on to lose the next round to Cotto. You could argue he lost it convincingly because of the knee. Had he not fell, not to take anything away from Cotto in that round, but perhaps Clottey wouldn’t have lost that round.
From the incidents listed above, whilst Clottey was unlucky with the knockdown and the bad knee, Cotto did have blood running in his eye for 9 rounds.
So what happens now? I think Clottey has gained a lot of respect from the fans for the performance he has put in. Cotto gets another win on his record and perhaps when we look back in his record long after he’s retired, it will just be the W that counts; no-one will question it.
Clottey might look at Andre Berto next. He’s a title holder and Clottey will want a title. I wonder whether Berto will give him one on the performance. If not, perhaps a fight with Cintron could be a good fight. Certainly would be interesting!
I can’t help but feel this has asked more questions than given answers for Cotto. My next question is now he’s got a tough win under his belt, will it boost his confidence or make it worse due to how close it was. Time will tell. I think Pacquaio will be licking his lips at fighting him. If that fight doesn’t happen, maybe Berto might fancy his chances? Fail that, he could try and tempt Mayweather or Mosely, whichever one Pacquaio wouldn’t be fighting.
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