(For another take on the Cotto/Clottey drama, I bring you a piece from our man Shoefly, who sees fit to hit Josh Clottey when he’s down – L)

posted by Shoefly

I scored the Cotto/Clottey fight for Clottey 114-113, but I’m glad he lost. I found the whole thing sort of sick and depressing, like a slow-motion car accident or one of those science shows where they show you the details of the digestive system.

To be fair to Josh Clottey , and I won’t be after this , he probably did deserve to win that fight on points, and I think if he had committed the fouls Cotto did (the body slam, the blatant rabbit punch, the low blows) he would have had points deducted. Still, I have no sympathy for him, even when considering the egregious 116-111 card which had him winning only four rounds.

Joshua Clottey deserved to lose because he fought like a loser. He deserved to lose because he’s a natural second-best, taking over the mantle from the previous title-holder Luis Collazo as the ‘hard-luck story of his generation.” But the truth is… it’s not a matter of luck.

Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Large

I can’t believe what I’m reading, in the recaps and opinion pieces at other boxing sites and in the comments here at the Mas. What the hell were people watching last night that they can conclude after that fight that, ‘Cotto has lost it, Cotto isn’t that good, Cotto is still haunted by Margarito”?

To all of these people drawing these conclusions, I have a question: DID YOU NOT SEE THE CRATER OF A CUT OVER COTTO’S LEFT EYE THAT HE FOUGHT WITH FOR NINE FUCKING ROUNDS? JESUS!

To me, the cut essentially invalidates the fight and the result, period. It probably should have been stopped – that might have been in the better interest of both parties. Clottey is right to call for a rematch, and he’ll never get it, which is a shame, although he would have had his rematch if he’d manned up and gone out there and conclusively won those last three rounds, so he’s left to think about that when he’s fighting some up-and-comer on Friday Night Fights in November.

I’ll get to the decision later. It’s definitely debatable. But it was clear to me that Cotto would have been well within his rights to opt out of that fight at any point after the third round. Fights have been justifiably stopped for much lesser cuts. It also was clear to me that around the seventh round, when it was obvious that the cut was not going to stop pouring blood into his eye and making him all but defenseless to right hands, when even the announcers were starting to say, ‘man, they should probably stop this thing”… if the fight had been stopped then, Cotto would have had an indisputable lead on the scorecards. You can debate whether he deserved that decision after 12, but there is no debate that he was up after seven.

Read the rest of this entry »