By Jason Kim: WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs) is facing one of his biggest tests since being taken apart by Antonio Margarito last year when he fights Joshua Clottey (35-2, 20 KOs) in a title match next week on June 13th at the Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York.

As of now, most of the betting money is being put on the side of the 28-year-old Cotto as they see him as being able to hold onto his World Boxing Organization welterweight title against the 32-year-old Clottey. However, Clottey remains a very live underdog given his fast hand speed, good power and experience against top level opponents like Zab Judah, Margarito and Diego Corrales.

It’s hard for me to bet on Cotto winning this fight because there’s still too many unknowns about whether he’s recovered from his 11th round stoppage loss to Margarito last year. Cotto has fought only once since that time, beating Michael Jennings. There’s a very real possibility that Cotto could lose this fight on June 13th, and I wonder where Cotto will go to if he loses to Clottey.

A decision loss without any knockdowns is one thing, but getting knocked out again would seem to suggest that there are some problems with Cotto’s ability to take a punch. Clottey is a good puncher, but not a one that hits hard enough to stop a fighter as good as Cotto in my estimation unless he hit him a lot of times.

This is why it would seem very odd for Cotto to get knocked out, and it would appear that Cotto’s punch resistance had lessened if Clottey were to knock him out. Knowing Cotto, he would probably want to continue to fight against the top level welterweights in the division and might want to get right back in the ring to take on a fighter in the class of Judah or Luis Collazo.

I wouldn’t advise that. If Cotto gets knocked out again, I think he would need a good long rest from fighters with any kind of power. I would recommend that Cotto take a year off from boxing, and then when he comes back to start fighting welterweights in the class of Jennings.

Cotto will need a weak puncher for awhile to avoid the risk of getting flattened again. The loss to Margarito was a severe one for Cotto, and he needed to probably rest his head a little more than he did before getting back into the ring again. Jennings was a good start, but Clottey might be pushing it a little bit for Cotto.

Tua Changes Nickname

Former heavyweight contender David Tua (49-3-1, 42 KOs) will be now called the “Tuaminator”, according to Stuff.co. Tua, 36, won’t be using his old nickname of “Tuaman” due to it being linked to legal problems that he’s been having with former managers.

The new name is of less importance to the average boxing fan, however, who want to just see Tua get in the ring and continue fighting. As of now, it’s been almost two years since Tua last fought, beating Cerrone Fox in a 2nd round knockout in September 2007.

At that time, Tua had been on a seven-fight comeback after being away from boxing for two years. At 36, Tua needs to speed up his career if he wants to get a title shot before he’s too old to compete. Tua has a scheduled fight against Australian Shane Cameron (23-1, 20 KOs) on October 3rd, at The Pavilion, in Hamilton, New Zealand.

This is excellent news that Tua will finally be resuming his boxing career because he still has a lot of fans despite being away for so long from the sport over the past six years. Tua challenged Lennox Lewis for his IBF/WBC heavyweight title nine long years ago in November 2000, losing by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision loss. It’s hard to believe that much time has gone by since Tua’s last title fight, because at the time Tua looked like an almost certain future heavyweight champion.