Nearly disasterous ending for Clottey may lead to big payday in Margarito rematch

When the fight between welterweights Joshua Clottey and Zab Judah ended in the middle of the ninth round, it was for the wrong reason. Judah had suffered a significant cut over his right eye, which had at first been ruled as being caused by an accidental head-butt. The ringside doctor gave Judah a visual test, which Judah failed several times, and thus was ruled to be unable to continue. As Clottey has a disqualification on his record for that very reason, it would seem a likely explanation. Though as a quality replay from HBO would show, the cut was definitively caused by a short Clottey punch. Judah was the flashier of the two, but never proved to be any real danger to Joshua. Clottey had been landing the more powerful punches all night, and his cut-inducing punch was good evidence to that fact.

Now, Clottey ended up winning the fight, but he almost was the victim of a heinous robbery. In the event of an accidental head-butt after the fourth round, the fight goes to the scorecards. If a fighter is ruled unable to continue because of a cut caused by a punch, he loses by TKO. In a close fight, a bad call referencing this rule could be the difference between a win and a loss. Clottey was ahead on all three scorecards, but only by a point or two. Now, I know instant replay is a hot topic, but in a sport with controversial endings like boxing, why not look to implement it? It can only help in those certain circumstances that are not in direct control of the judges. In this case, the ref could have used the instant replay to easily ascertain that the cut was caused by a punch, and not a head-butt. Had that happened, no scorecards would be necessary, and Clottey would have won the fight with no erroneous dramatics.

In the end however, the correct boxer won. What will be interesting to see is if Clottey goes after a rematch against current Welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, hot off his win against Miguel Cotto. Margarito won by decision in their prior meeting, and a rematch would not be a guaranteed win by any stretch. Unfortunately, this bout looks like it won't happen, as Clottey has come out and declared Andre Berto at the top of his wish-list for opponents. Margarito also announced his desire for Oscar De la Hoya, but Oscar's negotiating with the Manny Pacquiao camp on a possible fight. Whatever happens, the welterweight division should offer plenty of fireworks in the coming months.