Clottey Edges Judah for IBF title

Results

CLOTTEY BEATS JUDAH BY AN EYE

In the wake of the epic WBA Welterweight Championship battle that was Antonio Margarito vs. Miguel Cotto, top level contenders Joshua Clottey and Zab Judah faced off this weekend for the IBF version of the title. While the result was little surprise, the fight was not without its share of excitement and controversy.

Let’s take a minute to analyze the fight and what it means for the welterweight division.

WHO WON?

In the ninth round, Judah suffered a cut over his right eye apparently after an uppercut; however, the fighters had been clashing heads in the bout as often happens in Clottey fights, one of the butts coming in the same round. This butt was Judah’s own doing as he smothered his head against Clottey’s neck. Judah stopped to alert Referee Robert Byrd about what had transpired, but Byrd didn’t notice the cut if it was there. Unfortunately, replays were inadequate to answer the question for us as no shot of Judah’s face following the butt was provided.

An uppercut followed shortly thereafter, to which Judah reacted by pawing at his right eye, and it was then that Byrd stepped in to take Judah to the ringside doctor. After Judah failed a vision test, the doctor had Byrd stop the fight, sending it to the scorecards. Because the partial ninth round must be scored, a round Clottey easily won, Clottey won the fight by only a point on two of the three judges’ cards and three points on the last judge’s card for the unanimous decision.

DID THE RIGHT MAN WIN?

Clottey deserved the decision in a fight that was by no means as clear as glass. Coming into the bout, Clottey told the HBO commentating team that he would split the first four rounds with Judah before breaking his man down and winning in dominant fashion. This was almost exactly how the fight progressed, the first three rounds essentially toss-up rounds that could have gone either way without much room for complaint.

True to his word, Clottey picked up the aggression after that and manhandled Judah at times, bloodying his nose and mouth with uppercuts in round four. In round five, Clottey was so in his groove that he stopped to smile, shake his head and wave goodbye to Judah at the end of the round. Clottey undoubtedly won four of the nine rounds, if not more, and was coming on strong over the last two rounds, punching Judah into a corner in round seven and controlling the ninth. Judah fought well enough to keep it close but not well enough to win.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE WINNER?

Clottey has now achieved his goal of becoming a champion in what was boxing’s toughest weight class only a year ago. While that honor belongs to the lightweight ranks now, Clottey can boast standing alongside talented and hard-nosed warriors like Antonio Margarito and Paul Williams as well as the yet unproven WBC Champion Andre Berto. Unification is the logical next step for the welterweight division with the retirement of its champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. And Clottey stands a great chance of unifying some of the belts and potentially becoming the leader of his class.

Clottey very well may be the most complete fighter at 147 pounds with the loss of Mayweather. Remember: he was literally manhandling Margarito (which hardly seems possible after seeing Margarito dismantle Cotto last week) in December of 2006 for the first four rounds; in fact, so often did he hit the hard head of Margarito that he broke not one but both of his hands as early as the sixth round. One could still argue Clottey deserved a draw in that bout, so a rematch is absolutely necessary. Williams would likely be a much tougher test for Clottey, who would have a hard time forcing a fight on the lanky WBO Champion. In a strange but appreciable move, Clottey called out Berto after his victory over Judah, eager to expose a young talent and pick up another belt. In a time where the only fighter regularly called out is Oscar De La Hoya, any other choice is refreshing.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE LOSER?

Judah received a great deal of praise for his gutsy effort against Miguel Cotto last summer, but many still saw him quitting midway through that fight. While Judah was pounding his chest to suggest his heart, he forgot to launch punches on Cotto despite landing plenty of hard shots. In this fight with Clottey, Judah did not fold his tent, something he vowed he would never again do prior to the fight. He was still a live opponent and, according to the judges, in position to win the fight over the last three rounds. One of the most spirited efforts of his career was launched in the eighth round of this fight.

The big question is whether or not, like Hasim Rahman against James Toney a few weeks back, Judah decided to quit after receiving his cut and learning that the referee called it the result of a headbutt. The ringside doctor asked Judah how many fingers he was holding up, to which Judah responded three when the answer was two. Their conversation was a brief one as if Judah had made up his mind that he wasn’t going to fight on even though the doctor didn’t think the cut was bad enough to warrant a stoppage.

Rahman is catching a lot of slack for making a strategically smart decision against Toney. He wasn’t going to beat Toney with one eye, not the way he was getting hit after the cut. If he lets the fight move beyond the third round, he loses by a technical knockout. It’s a cowardly decision in that it deprives the fans of a good fight, but it’s also intelligent. Judah probably knew he wasn’t going to win the last three rounds the way the fight was progressing, so he took a chance, hoping he had enough early rounds in the bank. It turns out he didn’t, but he knows himself better than any outsider does, and if he thought he couldn’t win with his vision impaired, he might have made the best choice possible under the circumstances. Being the fifth or sixth best man in a star studded division is no bad thing, but at this point, Judah isn’t going to be more than a bounce back guy for a losing champion like Cotto.

IN CONCLUSION

It was a strong, spirited effort from both combatants and a fight that was fought on a high level. Clottey performed as expected and pulled through against one of the worst types of opponents for him: a slick southpaw who picks his punches carefully. Clottey deserves the opportunity to unify his IBF title with the belts possessed by the other champions, but he’s probably going to have a hard time luring any of them into those fights. Judah shouldn’t get any more title shots for a while, but he’ll most likely remain an option for any of the champions looking for a defense between big fights, which just goes to show how loaded this division really is.