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Sharkie’s Machine
By Frank Gonzalez Jr.
August 4th, 2008
“Judah Fought Well but Clottey Fought Better”
In the battle for the vacant IBF Welterweight title belt at
the Palms Casino, in Las Vegas, Zab Judah (36-6, 25 KO’s)
fought the IBF’s #1 contender, Joshua Clottey (35-3, 21 KO’s)
in what turned out to be a more competitive fight than
expected, since Judah is arguably past his best days, while
Clottey is now coming into his own.
It was a competitive fight that saw Judah explode with offense
in spots and Clottey show great defense and counter punching
ability. Early on, Judah won some rounds with fast handed
combinations and mobility. The midway saw Clottey stalking
Judah, who was starting to show signs of wear.
An uppercut by Clottey in the ninth round started a cut over
Judah’s right eye that prompted the referee to call the
ringside doctor to check Judah out. Judah told the doctor he
couldn’t see. The doctor called a halt to the fight after
Judah failed to answer correctly when asked, “How many
fingers? (holding up two) Zab said, “Three.”
It was a pretty bad gash across the top of his right eye. The
cut was officially ruled the result of a head butt, so they
went to the score cards. But the instant replay showed that
cut was caused by a punch, a right uppercut. The Technical
Decision had Clottey winning on all three Judges cards by
scores of 87-84 and 86-85 twice.
Congratulations to the new IBF Welterweight champ, Joshua
Clottey, who worked hard to get this title and is now a member
of a group of title holders at Welterweight that includes
Antonio Margarito (WBA), Paul Williams (WBO) and Andre Berto
(WBC). After the fight, Clottey said he wanted to fight Berto
in a unification bout. Berto is already slated to fight Steve
Forbes, who’s not even in the top ten of the Welterweigh t
division. Forbes last outing featured him as Oscar De La
Hoya’s sparring partner for 12 rounds that saw Oscar
predictably get the nod from the Judges.
It is curious that Zab Judah was given this opportunity to
fight for the vacant IBF belt, which was held by Antonio
Margarito, who defended it against Kermit Cintron and was
subsequently stripped of it prior to fighting Miguel Cotto,
due to the politics of the IBF.
Considering that Judah has lost three of his last six fights,
which included losses to top level guys like Baldomir,
Mayweather and Cotto, there is no rationale for Judah
deserving this opportunity. In the span of his last six, he
has only two wins over two, ‘tune-up caliber’ opponents, Ryan
Davis (20-6) and Edwin Vasquez (20-10). But there was Judah
with the golden opportunity to win another title if he could
beat Joshua Clottey, who may now hold the mantle of, “the man
no one wants to fight.”
Judah gave a good showing but ultimately couldn’t take a punch
as well as Clottey could and that was the story of this fight.
Clottey’s last six opponents all had winning records,
including Antonio Margarito, who Clottey handled nicely until
hurting his hand midway through the fight and consequently
lost a Unanimous Decision. Clottey is a solid, well rounded
boxer with good defense, power and a strong chin, earned his
way to this opportunity and as expected, got the job done
against the always dangerous, Zab Judah. Regardless of the
result, Judah showed a lot of heart and better conditioning in
this fight.
During the post fight interviews, Clottey was gracious in
crediting Judah for his performance. There was no bad blood
and definitely respect from both sides, which was refreshing
to see after a Judah fight. In the end, Judah refused to
acknowledge that it was a punch that caused the cut, saying
that Clottey has a history of head butting, etc, etc. Judah
will be Judah.
I was impressed with Judah’s performance Saturday night and
although he lost yet again to another top fighter, Judah appears
to still have a few good fights in him. If he works as hard as
he did leading up to this fight, chances are good that he can
still remain competitive in one of boxing’s strongest
divisions.
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Comments can be emailed to dshark87@hotmail.com
8-2-2008
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