Mark Ortega
When Joshua Clottey lifted the vacant IBF welterweight title back in August of last year against Zab Judah, he thought it was his ticket to bigger fights and a chance to build a legacy. It hasn’t quite worked out that way, and the 147-pound champion, who hails from Ghana but has carved out a living in the United States since 2001, has gone without a fight since.
Clottey is unfortunately a man without a following. He is well-known in his homeland, but in the States he is just another fighter who is a hard sell to ticket buyers and potential opponents. He currently resides in the Bronx, New York, and would be easy to assume there is not a large Ghana population there. On top of that, Clottey does not necessarily have a crowd pleasing style, but it isn’t a boring one either. Since winning the title, Clottey has had a few fights rumored to be made, as well as one that was nearly signed, but he has yet to make a defense of his title.
Clottey’s first rumored fight was to be a welterweight unification bout with Antonio Margarito in December of last year, a rematch from their thrilling and close 2006 fight that saw Margarito claim a unanimous decision victory.
“I was in Africa when my manager asked me about the fight. I said I wanted the fight, and I was told that my promoters would get back to me about it. I didn’t hear anything about it after that,” said Clottey in a phone interview Tuesday.
After the Margarito fight went away, Clottey was slated to defend his title against Kermit Cintron, whom Clottey was the mandatory challenger to before Cintron suffered a second crushing defeat at the hands of Margarito. The fight was supposed to take place under the Miguel Cotto-Michael Jennings fight, but Cintron opted to take a fight with Sergio Gabriel Martinez for an interim version of the 154-pound title instead.
“Cintron is the coward in the division,” remarked Clottey. “He didn’t want to fight me when he was the champion, either.” That refers to a point where Clottey was the long-standing mandatory challenger to Cintron, and Cintron decided to pay the IBF to sanction Cintron-Margarito II as long as the winner agreed to fight Clottey immediately afterwards. Margarito won the fight and vacated the belt immediately to chase a bigger fight with Miguel Cotto instead. Clottey was not even offered any step-aside money and decided to get back in line, hoping his shot at a world title would come soon.
Clottey would get that chance in August against Zab Judah for the vacated title. At the end of a fight that was shortened due to a cut suffered by Judah, Clottey emerged victorious and became a world champion. But what exactly has it changed for Clottey?
“Winning a world title is a big thing. Even bigger was who I beat to win the title. It was Zab Judah, and we have a grudge between us. He pushed my trainer and I wanted to teach him a lesson,” said Clottey. “I took less money to fight Judah because I thought when I won I would get the big fights and a chance to unify the titles. Even with the title, those guys still won’t fight me. I didn’t make nothing off the Judah fight, and now I have been off for six months. It is just unbelievable. Why did I win the title if it didn’t change anything for me?”
Clottey’s desire for a big fight is obvious. He has claimed that if none of the top guys will fight him, he might just quit the sport. It is an understandably frustrating situation that he has found himself in. Why would any of the top fighters at welterweight choose to fight Clottey? He is a high-risk fight that offers little reward except for the trinket that he currently owns. He doesn’t sell tickets at the volume that many of the other top fighters do, either.
“When I won the belt, I thought I would be fighting every three months. Now it has been six months and all these fights are going by while I just sit back. It just feels like I am being neglected,” Clottey continued. “They are all fighting around me. I came here to fight, why aren’t they giving me a chance? Mosley is an old man that just wants the big fights for big money, Cintron is a coward, Berto would never fight me. I need to fight with these guys to prove how good I am.”
It can be discussed that Clottey does not even have a legitimate loss on his record. His first loss came at the hands of Carlos Baldomir by disqualification in a bout that Clottey was well ahead in. His loss to Margarito is now being questioned because of the controversy currently surrounding him concerning illegal hand wraps that were discovered shortly before his bout with Mosley. When asked what he had to say about that situation, Clottey had this to offer:
“I can’t say that he used it in all of his fights. Whatever the case may be, if he loaded his gloves then that’s bad. This is boxing, if he has been doing that for a long time, he should be banned. If he used that against me, against Cintron twice, against Cotto, then we don’t need him.”
It is interesting to see where Clottey can go from here. He currently is without a mandatory challenger, but once Miguel Cotto emerged victorious this past weekend he became a possible opponent for Clottey. Cotto is a fighter who has never ducked anyone, and that seems to be the only real possibility for Clottey to get a big fight.
“You know, even if I were sleeping and they called me to fight Cotto, I would take that fight. I need to fight the top guys, otherwise what is the point of being the champion? I am the number four guy in the world, I want my chance to prove myself.”
Hopefully, for Clottey’s sake, he gets awakened by a late phone call soon enough.
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