Here's mine: Margarito-Cotto Everyone knows about the breakdown done by Margarito. Here's my thing though. The 10th rd showed a crucial mistake by Cotto, it was here that IMO it looked like Margarito was starting to slow down and appeared to be losing confidence and Cotto didn't seem to be taking hardly any punishment while also dominating that rd, but the last few seconds he let Marg trap him on the ropes and appear to hurt him. Had he tied up Margs and finished that rd strong it could have made a difference in him finishing the fight on his feet. Instead he gave Margarito another shot of confidence allowing him to push himself to go out and stop Cotto. By the way anyone who gave that 10th rd to Margarito needs to go back to fight judging school. I wonder how physically and mentally tough Cotto really is. Even in the Mosley fight you could see towards the end that the punches were affecting him and in the Margarito fight it looked evident as early as the 5th rd to me. I wouldn't be totally surprised if he doesn't come all the way back from this. I'm not sure he has the will to go through that kind of hell on a consistent basis. Clottey-Judah Clottey has impressed me since the first time I saw him fight and I've always been a pretty big fan of his. He showed once again that his impenetrable defense, extreme toughness, and unorthodox style make him a nightmare for anyone. People won't be ducking him so much anymore because now he has that belt. As for Zab, well I need to address that in another thread.
Regarding the tenth round, two unofficial judges (Chuck Giampa, Harold Lederman) scored it for Margarito. I haven't seen the official round-by-round scorecards for the fight, but I've read that Margarito dominated the late rounds on those as well. Considering that two judges had him up by two points and another one had him even with Cotto after ten, presumably all three official judges (Dave Moretti, Jerry Roth, Glen Hamada) gave Margarito the tenth as well. So that's possibly five judges that need to go back to fight judging school. Frankly, I think that round was a classic Lampley special. The round wasn't nearly as one-sided as his call of it made viewers believe, and in my opinion Margarito did more in the final 30 seconds than Cotto did in the 2:30 prior to it.
Clottey's focus was a little better last night and I think that is his biggest flaw. I thought Margarito was too mano for him the first time - I'm not sure that changes next time. I say they look to make Clottey-Cotto for the end of the year, or maybe sometime next year. I doubt very much Clottey gets Berto and Margarito will be looking for the biggest money fight out there--deservedly so. I'm not sure if Arum will wanna rush Cotto back into that but it would be a great fight.
Cotto-Margarito Great fight which was actually two great fights in one. What a lot of people seem to be forgetting in the aftermath of what turned into a bad beating for Cotto was that, for six rounds, he basically made Margarito look like the limited pressure fighter some had always felt him to be. Cotto succeeded in making Antonio miss a hell of a lot in the early stages, catching him coming in and on the way out with clean, crisp clusters of punches. There was always going to be a question mark of Cottos stamina- his penchant for needing to take breathers during rounds had been well documented and came back to haunt him- that and Margarito's iron chin and indefatigable will. Because once Cotto got tired, he started to slow down, and once he slowed down, he got hit, and the more he got hit, the more he slowed down etc etc etc... Cotto can come back from that. As I've said elsewhere, the bottom line is that he was winning easily until his stamina gave out. If he can somehow find new reserves of stamina in there, he can come strong again. Whether he has the heart to return is unknown, though. As for Margarito, the division is his oyster right now, and the options are his to pick and choose. I suspect he'll look to unify by taking Clottey's new bauble from him, then he'll try to make some money. there are plenty of good, respectable welters out there to pick from, though I personally would like to see him take on Paul Williams. Clottey - Judah Clottey surprised me by how easily he won this fight. I expected Zab to look his usual flashy self for at least five rounds before Clottey started to take over. The flashy start lasted all of one round... :: I'm not sure that he'll ever be a great, but I too have always liked Clottey. As a boxing technician, he is highly skilled. His defense is rock solid, his handspeed is quicker than it might first appear and he puts his punches together nicely. As for Zab, well, the nicest thing I'll say is that he didn't get knocked out and I'm sure there will somehow be another chance for him to get an undeserved title shot again in the future. One of the most overrated fighters of this generation just will not go away, and frankly, I really wish he would MTF opcorn:
I remember saying in ILLU's RBR thread that Cotto might have done enough to win it until he got absolutely clattered late on. If you are winning a close round unspectacularly, it is a bad idea to then get tagged on the ropes and to be hanging on for grim death when the bell sounds. That sort of thing tends to swing a round score, I should imagine... MTF
I don't think Clottey won the fight easy at all, at least until Zab decided to quit. I hate Zab more then anyone but I think he was fighting his ass off right up until he got cut. Clottey was just too patient as times and that's why a couple of scorecards were very close at the end of the fight. True, Zab was getting busted up and Clottey didn't have a mark on him and didn't look tired in the least bit but Zab was winning rounds. Zab did know he was fading though, that's why he took the chance that he might be ahead on the scorecards when he begged the doctor to stop the fight.
Well Margarito's little flurry seemed shorter to me than 30 seconds more like about 10 but I could be mistaken. Still a little 10 second flurry isn't going to swing my card if a guy just dictated a whole 2:50 rd impressively. I felt Clottey was winning easily but I think his style of defense hurts him because although he's not really getting hit, the judges are the real ones who will determine that and I could easily see that robbing him of a fight he probably deserves to win at some point. Another thing I meant to address in this fight is there needs to be instant replay calls used in boxing. Clottey nearly got robbed because it was assumed that since he comes in with his head, that Judah's cut was caused by a butt. Camera shots clearly showed that was not the case. I doubted it from the start for 2 reasons. One I never saw the butt happen and two, Judah-who isn't the most reliable voice around-was so adamant that it was from a butt.
That's where we disagree. I didn't think Cotto dictated the round "impressively" at all. He was winning it, but he was in retreat the entire way while Margarito was coming forward, and I didn't see Cotto land any punches in the round that were comparable to the ones Margarito landed late, and I didn't think he landed with enough volume to compensate for that discrepency.
You're right we do disagree because that was about the best rd I thought Cotto boxed effectively in, keeping in mind I caught the fight mid 4th rd. Every other rd to me it looked like Cotto was being effectively pressured and pretty much running from Margarito and was in trouble. The 10th rd was the one round where it appeared Margarito looked gassed and doubtful and Cotto looked like he was effectively boxing and keeping distance with Margarito, not running. I was actually surprised because Margarito didn't do nothing to hurt Cotto that rd until he let himself get caught on the ropes.
Cotto was moving constantly, but everything about him in the round - including most of his punching - looked defensive-minded to me. Like he was moving his arms to keep Margarito off him more than intent to hurt him or anything else. Margarito was walking him down, continually throwing punches, and watch the round again because Cotto stopped along two sides of the ring the final 30 seconds and the final flurry that sealed the round (on many cards) cetainly began earlier than the 2:50 mark of the round.
You're probably right, I only saw it once and judged it from that perspective and I wasn't focused as much as I could have been, having just woke up.
the first 1:20 of round 10, cotto ran, margs didnt land much but was chasing cotto, cotto didnt land shit, next minute cotto landed the more effective counter punches, last 30 cotto got handled by margs, i scored the round for margs
Zab was certainly trying his ass off, I agree, but imho he was completely ineffective. I really don't know what rounds you could say he won except the first and maybe one or two others (I'd have to rewatch to score accurately, as I never do this when watch fights first time out). My impression was that although Judah was throwing shots, he hit almost nothing bar gloves and arms all night, whilst Clottey, who was much more selective in his shots, caused damage on numerous ocassions. I thought Clottey was in control from a very early stage- blocking shots and countering is his preferred modus operandi. I never thought Clottey ever left his comfort zone; hence I felt he won quite easily MTF
