Duan had this to say after he wrote his preview.

I didn’t mention the fact that he fired Evangelista Cotto after a huge blow up, and is going into this fight with a new head trainer for the first time. I wonder how that turmoil in camp effected his preparations.

Joe Santiago, former assistant trainer to Cotto, is now Miguel’s lead trainer.

My response to him was that we will soon see. It’s fight time.

Joshua Clottey vs. Miguel Cotto

R1
Both guys came out punching, but both guys were blocking. Clottey covered up so as to not let Cotto hit the body, but Cotto was slipping the jab in there. Cotto threw a short left jab while Clottey was walking in and knocked him down. I guess you have to give him a 10-8, even though Clottey was more embarrassed than hurt.

R2
Clottey looks strong. Cotto looks like he’s trying to set up the left hook. Clottey is doing a good job covering up for those punches, but it just means that he’s not able to unleash as many shots. But the ones he throws are very accurate. I’d give that round to Clottey.

R3
Clottey wasn’t as busy and isn’t going to be as busy because he’s fighting so well defensively, but he just seems to be connecting with the stronger punches. They butted heads late in the round and now Cotto has a bad cut over his left eye.

R4
The cut is giving Cotto major issues, but he’s stepping up his offense. He’s going to the body and working it. Clottey thinks he has Cotto and is throwing a lot of right hands which Cotto may or may not see coming. This is going to be a war.

R5
In one of the weirder sequences you’ll see in boxing, the referee tripped on a camera man and nearly tripped. Then Clottey jumped into Cotto’s arms and Cotto dumped him on the floor like a body slam. The ref is trying to get Clottey to walk it off. Clottey is either really hurt, or working it. The way the announcers were talking, it was like turnabout is fair play. I’m not sure the butt and a body slam are the same thing when it comes to sportsmanship. Cotto and Clottey don’t like each other.

R6
It looks like Clottey fell, and wasn’t body slammed. Cotto just shook him off and Clottey was off-balanced. Supposedly, it’s Clottey’s knee that is hurting. Both guys have stopped moving and are just firing and Cotto’s getting the better of the exchanges. For some reason, Clottey was ok hanging back in the corner and Cotto is just teeing off. Clottey is trying to score from the corner, but he’s taking a lot of shots to give a few back. After Clottey seemed to have the advantage because of the cut, Cotto has now shifted the fight entirely back into his favor.

R7
Now it’s back to Clottey’s favor. He’s opening up and no longer fighting on the ropes and Cotto is pawing at his cut a lot. He’s landing some hard right hands.

R8
Another really strong round for Clottey. He landed more punches and taunted Cotto after an exchange in the corner where the Cotto actually landed some decent shots. But he looks to be slipping a bit and maybe because of the knee. Cotto is completely bothered with the cut.

R9
That was a close round. Both guys landed good shots. Cotto, facially, looks like a beaten fighter. But he’s standing toe to toe with Clottey, who seems to be getting stronger.

R10
That was another very close round. Cotto ended it with two solid left hooks, which could’ve swayed the judges to his side.

R11
Cotto boxed a lot more in this round. He circled and moved around a lot more and forced Clottey to chase him a bit. He was working on countering a bit more and I think that won a very close round for him. He landed a left uppercut which was the best punch of the fight.

R12
I wonder if Team Clottey thinks he’s got this in the bag. In the last few rounds, Clottey has stopped throwing as many punches. Clottey turned his head to Cotto and took a punch to the back of the head. The ref said that Clottey turned and caused it. Cotto then hit him low and the ref said it was an accident. Cotto is going to take this round simply because he was more busy. Really good end by Cotto, but not sure that was how Clottey wanted to end the fight.

Winner: Miguel Cotto by split decision

The judges’ scores were 116-111 (Cotto), 114-113 (Clottey), and 115-112 (Cotto).

What was interesting is that you’d think that Cotto’s eye would’ve been worse later in the fight and Clottey should’ve pounded him with right hands. But he stopped throwing the right hand all of a sudden. Maybe it was because Cotto was moving much better and decided to stop standing toe to toe with him.

I was fine with either fighter winning a close fight. I’m not sure about 116-111. I think Cotto won the fight by boxing in the last few rounds and staying away from the right hand.

At any point, this was an excellent fight.

This photo is from wikipedia and shared through creative commons

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