By Tim Fletcher: After a three-year drought, former middleweight world title challenger Gabriel Rosado (22-9, 13 KOs) finally got a win under his belt in defeating the older and smaller 39-year-old junior middleweight Joshua Clottey (39-5, 22 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York.

The final judges’ scores were 96-94, 97-93 and 97-93. Clottey got off to a great start and dominated the first rounds of the fight.

It looked Clottey was going to completely run away with the fight and win an easy decision. However, Rosado used his size and youth to come on strong in the second half of the fight to win.

Clottey faded in the fight just like he had in his past fights against Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao. In those contests, Clottey was effective in the early part of the fight, but then ran out of gas and jut took punishment in the last half. Now that he is older, Clottey seems to fade faster than ever.

Both fighters have not been very active lately, but Rosado looked like the less rustier of the two tonight.

After the fight, Rosado said that he wants to fight WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Given that Rosado isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies at middleweight, I think it’s very unlikely that he’ll be getting a fight against Canelo, but you cannot blame Rosado for trying.

Rosado had a big advantage in size in fighting a pumped up welterweight like Clottey in the middleweight division. Clottey is small for even the junior middleweight division and he has no business fighting middleweights like Rosado.

“I delivered an entertaining fight tonight and I was happy with my performance. I am ready for my next big challenge, I would like a shot at Canelo [Alvarez] next,” Rosado said.

Instead of looking to fight Canelo next, Rosado should focus on trying to beat some other top contenders in the 154lb division. beating Clottey was a good start but there are better fighters in the 154 and 160lb divisions than Clottey.

“This was an off night for me,” Clottey said. “I do think that the fans enjoyed the fight –we are both fighters that do not like to back down. However, I don’t feel comfortable at this weight class, I want to go back down to 154 and continue to fight at junior middleweight.”

Nicholas Walters – Jason Sosa fight to 10 round draw

In a tough fight filled with back and forth action, former WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters (26-0-1, 21 KOs) finally faced someone that he could not outsize and overpower in Jason Sosa (18-1-4, 14 KOs). The two fighters fought to a 10 round draw. The fight took place at super featherweight rather than featherweight, as Walters has grown out of the 126lb division and is now fighting at 130.

The new weight division proved a difficult one for Walters, as Sosa hit him frequently with very hard shots. As the fight wore on, Sosa’s punches seemed to have more of an impact, as they snapped Walters’ head around. Sosa finished strong in controlling the 9th and 10th rounds with his aggression and pressure.

The judges scored the fight 96-94 for Sosa, 95-95 and 95-95.

“I am in total shock. I was never in any danger, never hurt,” Walters said. “[Sosa] is a good fighter — the kind of fight I wanted — but I thought I won all the rounds. So I was surprised this happened to me.”