Clottey planning comeback, wants Cotto and Saul Alvarez

By Boxing News - 09/25/2011 - Comments

Image: Clottey planning comeback, wants Cotto and Saul AlvarezBy Chris Williams: Former International Boxing Federation (IBF) welterweight champion Joshua Clottey (35-4, 20 KO’s) is talking comeback once again and wants to get back in the ring before the end of the year to start a new campaign at 154 lbs instead of his old weight of 147.

Clottey wants to take on junior middleweight champions Saul Alvarez and Miguel Cotto as soon as he gets a tune-up fight out of the way before the end of the year.

Clottey, 33, hasn’t fought since early 2010, when he underperformed in a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Manny Pacquiao in March 2010. Instead of going after the smaller Pacquiao to make a fight of it, Clottey spent the better part of the fight hiding behind his clam shell guard just covering up like a sparring partner against the ropes. It was a terrible performance and once that didn’t endear Clottey with the boxing public, who expected him to fight tooth and nail like Freddie Roach and Bob Arum had predicted he would while selling the PPV fight to boxing fans. It was Clottey at his worst, just looking to survive.

Clottey has lost his last two fights and even if he does fight a tune-up fight against a little known opponent before the end of the year the chances of Clottey being selected by either Cotto or Alvarez for a title fight in 2012 are slim and none even if the sanctioning bodies do quickly rank Clottey in the top 20. He’s not a big name and because of how awful he looked in the Pacquiao fight, he’s not likely going to be sought after by Alvarez or Cotto.

You can immediately rule Clottey out for a fight against Alvarez right off the bat, because is promoted by Top Rank, so that fight probably isn’t going to happen. The only way Clottey gets a fight is if Bob Arum decided to have another in house fight where he matches Cotto, who he also promotes, with Clottey. I can’t see Arum doing that, at least not in 2012. Cotto wants big named opponents so he can make as much money as possible. He already beat Clottey by a 12 round decision in June 2009.

Granted, it was a close fight, but he already beat him and I can’t see him wanting to take a fight against a non-start like Clottey when there are much bigger options like fights against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Pacquiao, or possibly against Saul Alvarez. Clottey might get a shot in 2013, but I seriously doubt Cotto would bother with fighting Clottey even then unless Clottey uses his time wisely by taking on top junior middleweight contenders like Erislandy Lara, Carlos Molina, Kermit Cintron, Alfredo Angulo, Vanes Martirosyan and Pawel Wolak. I’d like to see Clottey fight some of those guys but I doubt he will.



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