Cotto Survives a Close One and Mercer is my Hero!

Miguel Cotto hung onto his WBO Welterweight title saturday with a very close split decision over tough Joshua Clottey. The fight could have gone either way by a point or two or even a draw would have been ok...although two of the judges had Cotto further ahead than that. I really felt the 12th round was going to be the deciding round in a back and forth action fight and Cotto took the last round. But then to my surprise according to the judges Cotto didn't even need the 12th they already had him winning. Cotto jumped ahead early by scoring a knockdown off a jab in the very first round...Clotty just walked right into it. Then Cotto was badly cut over his left eye due to an accidental headbutt in the 3rd which was a nasty cut...and I didn't really think the fight was going to last 12 because of it. After the 4th round ended...because it was accidental, if the fight had to be stopped they would have went to the scorecards. A good strategy (although not crowd pleasing), would have been for Cotto to try to get the doctor to stop the fight on the cut since he was ahead early and he could have escaped with a technical decision. Thankfully that is not the kind of fighter Cotto is and he stuck in there til the very end even though it was clear that the cut was bothering him. Then in the 5th round while the two fighters were in the corner...it appeared Clottey was holding Cotto and Cotto slipped out of it causing Clottey to fall to the canvas hurting his leg. At first it didn't look like Clottey was even going to continue. Watching the replay I don't even see how he could have hurt his leg since it looked as if he landed head first. After that Clottey did seem to have trouble with his movement and Cotto had him trapped on the ropes taking a pounding. They were tradining rounds...Cotto wins one, the Clottey comes right back and wins the next. There was a few times during the fight it looked like Clottey was on his way to a TKO landing some great hard combos on Cotto getting him into trouble. I was not impressed by Cotto in this fight. It was a very good fight and entertaining but it was not an easy one for Cotto. He definitely struggled and barely escaped with the win. Based on what I saw saturday night I don't really feel Cotto has a long career left in front of him. I believe he would lose a rematch with Mosley, and I could not see him beating Floyd Mayweather, or Manny Pacquiao, or Paul Williams, or even Andre Berto. He is still a good fighter I just would not place him with the elite anymore...and alot of that most likely has to do with the terrible beating he took from Antonio Margarito. As for Clottey, he was impressive even in losing the decision, although he did complain alot in the fight which was a little annoying. I still expect him to be a threat in the welterweight division. Would like to see a Clottey/Berto fight next.

On an interesting note, former WBO Heavyweight champ and one of my fav heavies, Ray Mercer had a fight over the weekend. The 48 year old Mercer took on former UFC Heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia. Last week I had heard the fight was cancelled because the boxing commission had said the fight would be illegal, but it took place anyways. Even a 48 year old Mercer was too much for that horrible Sylvia...and Mercer knocked him out in 9 seconds! HA HA HA HA HA. Made my day. Every glorious second of the fight is on youtube, just use this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUDubnBmt5w