posted by Large

Masians, have you heard the recent rumors that Josh Clottey vs. Paul Williams looks like a make for November 29th? People, people, I think we have our welterweight appetizer for whatever becomes of Margs and Cotto in ’09.

Man, I LOVE a PWill/Clottey fight, just love it, and it works well in the general scheme of the welterweights right now. Both of these guys have a legit claim on Margarito’s attentions – Williams, of course, because he beat him, but Clottey too because of their December ’06 fight in which Clottey was blowing Margs away on the scorecards before suffering a hand injury.

Is it fair that both of these guys have to wait their turn while both Margarito and Cotto work their way towards what seems now to be an inevitable rematch next summer? Maybe not, although given the greatness of Margs/Cotto I, I don’t think anyone is complaining that the second installment is taking precedence over everything else out there. And the rationale for that is obvious. In the absence of a massive payday with Oscar or Floyd, Margarito and Cotto fighting each other again is the biggest event that can be made out there for either man, and so dangerous guys like Williams and Clottey are just not going to get their turn at bat until that Margarito/Cotto II check gets cashed all around. Dollars and sense, etc., etc.

But Williams and Clottey are natural opponents for each other, and in effect, having them fight each other now is very much in keeping with the spirit of Margarito/Cotto, a fight that let us remember was largely borne of the fact that Floyd Mayweather continued to duck both men. But then Floyd disappeared from the scene and Oscar went into free-fall before dooming himself to a sideshow fight with Pac Man, at which point the Margarito/Cotto gamble paid off mightily, as the fight took boxing’s center stage for the summer and catapulted both men to the top of sport’s A-list.

I doubt that Williams/Clottey will work a similar magic, but it could have one effect that Margs/Cotto couldn’t ever hope to achieve. The men Margarito and Cotto were hunting – Floyd and Oscar – were not about to come out of hiding no matter how impressive the Q factor of that fight, because Oscar and Floyd are both big enough and rich enough to make their Q factor. But Margarito and Cotto are both proud Latinos with a tradition of taking tough fights, and what’s more, neither of them is a superduper star or about to become one anytime soon. These guys always will be swayed by the opinions of the dedicated fight fans and the machismo of their countrymen, and you can bet that over time, neither of them will be ducking Williams or Clottey.

So if PWill and Clottey do get it on in November, and particularly if it is a spectacular smackdown, it seems likely that the winner will stamp himself as next in line for the Margs/Cotto sweepstakes (unless, of course, Cotto beats Margarito next summer, because then we will most certainly be in Trilogy Territory).

And let’s face it – Williams/Clottey should be a spectacular smackdown. It’s hard to imagine otherwise. My early feeling is Clottey, but I’m nowhere near certain on that. Clottey gets hit a lot, and PWill can bang, not to mention the fact that he’s gigundous. Then again, Clottey’s chin is Margaritian, and he can bang himself, not to mention that he’ll outspeed Williams. The size and reach differential will be a huge factor, of course, and you’d think it would make business much easier for Williams. But then I think of the first Quintana fight. I can definitely imagine the size issue working to Clottey’s advantage as he comes in fast and low and works that long PWill torso to brutal effect. Clottey can go to that body with authority.

Anyway, I’ll leave it at that for now. Let’s cross our fingers that this rumor becomes reality, because it will add a real corker of a fight fan’s fight to a winter schedule that right now is packed with big names and precious little consequence.