Miguel Cotto

Miguel Cotto gave thousands of his fans exactly what they hoped for on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade. Overcoming a cut from an accidental head butt in the third round and several brutal rounds with Joshua Clottey, Cotto fought to a narrow split decision Saturday night in a packed Madison Square Garden, retaining his World Boxing Organization welterweight title. With blood pouring down his face, Cotto, the pride of Caguas and the roughly 800,000 New Yorkers who trace their roots to Puerto Rico, threw his arms up at the end of a close bout that left the two battered.

Miguel Cotto edged Joshua Clottey by split decision to retain his WBO welterweight title on Saturday. Patrick Gutierrez was covering all the action from Madison Square Garden. Get his take on all the bouts. After a series of mostly entertaining undercard bouts, we are now awaiting the main event between Cotto and Clottey. At stake is Cotto's WBO title. (Clottey vacated his IBF title in order to take this fight.) The Garden is packed with pro-Cotto supporters and a montage of his greatest hits shown on the arena scoreboard earlier whipped the crowd into a frenzy.

Meanwhile, a small faction of Clottey supporters just walked around the concourse waving the flag from Clottey's home country of Ghana. To the surprise of no one, they were soundly booed. Either they are very brave or no one told them where they were.World junior welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao just got a thunderous ovation as he was introduced. Former champions Iran Barkley, Winky Wright and Hashim Rahman are also in attendance.

Cotto vs Clottey

Cotto scored a nice TKO win two fights later over unbeaten Carlos Maussa, who later went on to win a championship. After registering wins over Victoriano Sosa and Lovemore N'Dou, Cotto devastated a fellow unbeaten, Kelson Pinto, to win the vacant WBO 140-pound title on a sixth-round TKO in September of '04. Then the trouble started. In his second defense, against DeMarcus Corley, never looked upon as a puncher, he was staggered, which set off an alarm about his chin. Cotto was considered fortunate to be able to come back and stop Corley in the fifth round. Cotto stopped Ricardo Torres in seven rounds subsequent to that, but not before Cotto was put into trouble by the crisp-punching Torres.

Cotto was considered fortunate to be able to come back and stop Corley in the fifth round. Cotto stopped Ricardo Torres in seven rounds subsequent to that, but not before Cotto was put into trouble by the crisp-punching Torres. Later, Cotto made the move up to the welterweight division and he secured the WBA title with a stoppage of Carlos Quintana in December 2006. He took to the weight well, making four successful title defenses, stopping Zab Judah and scoring a decision over Shane Mosley along the way. Cotto's balloon was burst last July when he defended against Antonio Margarito. He abandoned his aggressive style and became a boxer/runner, scoring points against Margarito but getting weaker as the fight progressed. When Margarito finally caught up to him in the eleventh round, it was over. Cotto's last fight was for the vacant WBO 147-pound title, and he stopped an extremely outgunned Michael Jennings in five rounds.

Clottey continued to toil in obscurity, even after coming to the U.S., when he made his debut on American soil with a sixth-round TKO of Jeffrey Hill. His 12-round majority decision over Richard Gutierrez earned him the IBF Inter-Continental title in July 2006, and also put him in line to fight one of the welterweight champions. Clottey eventually went into the ring with Antonio Margarito and lost a decision that was relatively decisive. Clottey got a big break four months later. When Diego Corrales decided to move from lightweight to welterweight, Clottey was selected as the opponent. The result for Clottey was triumphant, as he completely dominated Corrales, flooring him in the eighth and tenth rounds and winning a one-sided decision. Clottey captured the vacant IBF welterweight title in his last fight, a technical decision over Zab Judah.

Cotto fight

Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs) is the favorite and the biggest story as he battles to move beyond a tabloid-like split with trainer Evangelista Cotto and doubts that still linger in the wake of his lone loss to Antonio Margarito. For Cotto, it's like trying to hit the re-start button. If he wins and wins big, he reaffirms his pound-for-pound credentials and solidifies his claim on a shot at Manny Pacquiao. I like Cotto to win. But I have doubts about whether it will be as big a victory as he needs for an immediate date with Pacquiao, who sometimes sounds as if he would prefer to go straight to Floyd Mayweather Jr., a good bet to beat Juan Manuel Marquez on July 18.

Clottey (35-2, 20 KOs), a big and rugged welterweight, is a good defensive fighter and possesses the kind of durability that seems to say that this one will go to the scorecards. I like Cotto for taking on a tough challenge, and perhaps that's a sign he will prove me wrong with the brilliance I saw in him against Shane Mosley and Zab Judah. In fact, that's the Cotto I hope to see.

If there is such a thing as a fighter's fighter, Cotto is that guy. Stoic, versatile and smart, he has a solid, almost subtle, command of fundamental tactics. Like Clottey, he is known for moving forward. Like Clottey, he is known for body shots. But I suspect Cotto also knows how to do a whole lot more.

"They have to be prepared for everything," Cotto said in an unspoken promise that he will be. "If they want to hold the whole fight, I am prepared for that. If they want to chase me, I have those skills to move in the ring. If they want me to chase them, I know how to do that. But there is nagging uncertainty, mostly because Clottey remains a relative unknown, despite a resume that includes a victory over Judah and two losses that are hard to judge. In 1999, Clottey was beating Carlos Baldomir before a strange 11th round. That's when Clottey's purpose and poise, often evident with the media, suddenly vanished. A succession of head butts got him disqualified.