In a welterweight division where six of the top 10 are 31 years of age or older, the boxing world will focus on the third- and sixth-ranked fighters in the world Saturday.
Miguel Cotto, one fight removed from a knockout loss to Antonio Margarito, will put his WBO title on the line at Madison Square Garden in New York. His opponent for this fight will be Joshua Clottey, the No. 1-rated welterweight in the WBO.
If you pay any attention to the odds makers, it would behoove Clottey to not show up. It would appear by their forecasts that Clottey has little if any chance to beat the champion.
On paper, it would give the impression of an intriguing matchup. Cotto is 33-1 with 27 KOs, while the contender is 35-2 with 20 knockouts. Cotto’s most impressive victory to date was his unanimous decision win against current WBA champ Shane Mosley.
Clottey’s wins of impact are his technical decision over perennial contender Jab Zudah and his 2007 beatdown of former champ Diego Corrales. Anyone who can beat Diego from pillar to post is okay in my book.
They do share a common opponent or two. Both of them defeated Judah, Cotto by TKO and Clottey by technical decision. They also were both beaten by Margarito, Cotto by TKO and Clottey by unanimous decision. So, it is difficult to draw a conclusion from those two samples.
Cotto has fought once after his thumping at the hands of Margarito. In the fifth round he dispatched Michael Jennings, a man with an excellent résumé against fighters most have never heard of.
Cotto’s bullish nonstop style leaves him a victim for a counterpuncher. Clottey has excellent defensive skills and could prove particularly worrisome to Cotto in the later rounds, as he commands a three-inch advantage in reach.
Clottey has said publicly that he believes Cotto’s knockout loss at the hands of Margarito may have caused him some problems with endurance. That statement could cause Cotto to do some thinking and perhaps overthink the situation.
An intangible that will face Cotto is the fact that his corner has undergone a change of personnel.
The public confrontations between Miguel and his uncle and once longtime trainer, Evangelista, are no secret. But in April the feud spilled over into epic proportions. The two were involved in a fistfight among other dangerous engagements.
The bottom line is that Evangelista has had a lot to do with Cotto's success, so not having him in the corner could play an unknown role.
Changing corner men has proved to be problematic for many boxers, especially those with family involved.
I, being the true underdog lover, pick Joshua Clottey in a six-round TKO.
The winner of the fight, regardless of who it is, should give Margarito a rematch or try to unify some titles with WBA Super Welterweight Champ Mosley.
It should be a very entertaining fight. Will we see the Miguel Cotto who has been hyped as much as any fighter I have ever seen (and I go back to the Ingemar Johansson-Floyd Patterson era)? Or will we see a man that was almost KO’d by “Chop Chop” Corley, a man thinking about the Margarito fiasco with a familiar face missing in his corner?
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