Cotto Wins!

All things considered, I thought it was a great win for Cotto over Clottey, whose crying about a robbery was ridiculous. Fighting more than nine rounds with the worst cut I've ever seen that didn't end the fight, Cotto moved well, connected a fair number of heavy blows, and did more than enough to win a majority of the rounds. Clottey is right that Cotto was on his bike in the final rounds, but Clottey was ineffective as the aggressor. Too often, he walked Cotto down and cornered him without landing (or even throwing) a significant blow. If boxing was scored on aggression alone, Clottey would have taken five of the last six rounds, but even with Cotto fighting defensively, Clottey didn't decisively take many of the final frames. And Cotto had built up a huge lead by the halfway mark; I don't think you could have given more than two of the first six to Clottey, and I only had one going to the Ghanaian. With the knockdown, he was plausibly down five points by round seven. It was a competitive fight, but 116-111 in Cotto's favor seemed a lot closer to the mark than 114-113 Clottey.

A lot of the post-fight commentary pondered whether or not Cotto had mentally recovered from the Margarito knockdown. While irresistible, this speculation is somewhat silly, given that there is no way anyone really knows, aside from Cotto. But the balance of the evidence from last night doesn't support this conclusion, from Maxboxing's Gabriel Montoya:

For Cotto, who came into the fight amid questions about how he would fair following his hard lost war with Antonio Margarito, used every tactic in the book en route to a split decision victory but didn’t do much to show he hasn’t been affected by the brutality of that evening.

Why? Because he was backing up for the last few rounds? He did that against Mosley, too. And against Mohamad Abdulaev, and Margarito (though obviously with less success, at least down the stretch). Cotto often fights like that against tough guys who move forward at all costs. Other than that, we know that he fought nine championship-quality rounds with a gash as long and wide and deep as a thumb filling his eye with blood, and against one of the toughest fighters in the sport. Cotto wasn't spectacular, but no one has ever looked spectacular against Clottey. Short of a knockout, what more could he have done to show that the Margarito loss is behind him?

(Photo courtesy of Reuters.)