By Eric Thomas: Former International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Joshua Clottey has finally found an opponent to fight. That’s the good news. The bad part is that it will be Carlos Quintana rather than Shane Mosley, who Clottey was hoping to fight. That fight fell through when HBO decided they didn’t want to show a boxing fight on December 26th, the day after Christmas.
This left Clottey and Mosley without a date to fight and they then both went their separate ways. Quintana, a former World Boxing Organization welterweight champion, is still trying to pick up the broken pieces of his career after being destroyed by Paul Williams in a 1st round knockout loss last year. It’s strange how Quintana, who had a 12 round decision win over Williams last year, went from the top of the world to the bottom with the loss.
He had beaten Williams by out-slicking him four months earlier to take his title. What Quintana failed to realize is that Williams would go back to the drawing board, figure out what he had done wrong, and make corrections. Williams likely saw how Miguel Cotto was able to blitz Quintana by coming out fast and firing power shots to take Quintana out in the 5th round, because that’s exactly what Williams did against him. However, in Williams’ case, he was able to destroy Quintana in one brutal round rather than five.
A good thing about the Clottey-Quintana bout is that it will take place on the undercard of the Paul Williams vs. Kelly Pavlik bout on December 5th, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Clottey could find himself in another title shot if he can somehow get by Quintana. It won’t be easy. Quintana is a very crafty fighter who gets in and lands shots and then gets out really quickly.
Quintana doesn’t stick around to trade shots like some fighters and prefers to be elusive and stay out of the way. And unlike Clottey, Quintana doesn’t suffer from stamina problems. He’s able to fight hard for a full 12 rounds without tiring out. However, Quintana will have to make sure that he wins enough rounds in the early portion so that he’s no far behind in the fight by the time that Clottey starts fading.
Clottey is pretty much a seven or eight round fighter. In the last four rounds, he fades and his work rate slows to a crawl. But he usually has a comfortable lead by then and can afford to fade in the last quarter of the bout. Against Miguel Cotto, Clottey didn’t have that advantage because Cotto kept the fight close and when Clottey tired out, as if on cue, in the last four rounds, Cotto was ready to take control over the fight and win it by a narrow 12 round decision.
Clottey has the better hand speed and power of the two, but his stamina is horrible. That is really Quintana’s only chance of winning. He has to make sure he can win at least two rounds during the first six rounds to be able to capitalize when Clottey tires out in the second half of the fight.
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