Margarito vs Clottey - how did you score it? + both fighters analyzed

This is basically a long ass reply to a post by IntentionalButt in the Alvarez-Clottey thread, where he said that Clottey won the Margarito fight without question and challenged people to rewatch it. I was in an airplane yesterday, so I had time to waste and see the fight a few times/write this.

Here is my final scorecard:

Margarito - Clottey

Round 1: 9 - 10
Round 2: 9 - 10
Round 3: 9 - 10
Round 4: 9 - 10
Round 5: 10 - 9
Round 6: 10 - 9
Round 7: 10 - 9
Round 8: 10 - 9
Round 9: 10 - 9
Round 10: 9 - 10
Round 11: 10 - 9
Round 12: 10 - 10

Margarito 115 - 114 Clottey

I scored this favoring Clottey as much as I could without being biased against Margarito and still had him losing by a point. The only way I could see a draw is if you score the 12th for Clottey, but he didn't do enough to win that round, he just waited for Margarito to be completely open and threw some quick slapping combos a few times to try to steal it. I can't see any way you could think Clottey clearly won this match without being incredibly biased against Margarito. But that broken hand obviously affected Clottey from the 5th round on, so I think he would have a very good chance to win in a rematch.

If they fight again, Margarito should start very fast and throw more punches in the first few rounds than he did before. Even if the punches don't land it won't matter, also leaving himself open and getting countered a lot early could actually benefit him in the end. He would need to get Clottey tired as quickly as possible, then overwhelm him with many punches and break him down, especially with hooks to the side of the body, which Clottey is very open to. What Clottey would need to do is fight a little more defensively and mostly throw punches when Margarito is wide open and it's nearly impossible to miss him, not waste energy trying to punch through his gloves when he's got his hands up. He would have to do enough to win the rounds and understand that if he's dominating two thirds of a round that he doesn't need to keep dominating, instead he should just relax and cruise through the last minute. Clottey's gameplan would need to be all about wasting as little energy as possible while still closely winning the rounds. If Clottey had Margarito's stamina/workrate this would be an easy win for him, but his stamina is horrible so that's why this matchup is so close and they're on the same level despite Clottey being the more talented boxer.


This match showed why both Margarito and Clottey are overrated as hell and will never beat any real top level WW-JMW (except maybe for Cintron who's vulnerable to B level pressure fighters):

On top of his absolute **** stamina which forces him to fight in spurts, Clottey is mentally weak. Yes, he is very tough for fighting with a broken hand, but he was complaining about it over and over, almost looking like he was about to quit at times (unlike other boxers who suffer a bad injury during the early-middle rounds against even better fighters and don't keep repeating that they're hurt in the corner every 3 minutes and suck it up). After he injured his hand, Clottey threw an intentional low blow on Margarito and tried to headbutt him a few times (also clearly on purpose). Fouling out of frustration is a big sign of mental weakness and it's nothing new with him.

Anybody who thinks Clottey will give Cotto even a slightly tough fight knows nothing about boxing. Cotto is the absolute worst possible matchup for him. Clottey can't fight against him in spurts, because when he closes up he leaves the side of his body open to those huge hooks and Cotto's power jab could easily break through his guard, unlike Margarito's lazy jabs. Cotto's speed/accuracy is on a whole different level than Margarito's as well and Clottey would have a lot more trouble landing on him. Clottey is a low output, weak puncher who's chin hasn't been seriously tested. He poses zero threat to a fighter like Cotto. He would be broken down extremely fast and stopped in the middle rounds when he starts fighting in very short spurts trying to steal rounds. His mental weakness most likely relates to a shaky chin once he gets frustrated and Cotto will not let him relax or gain confidence at any point. If Cotto gets a chance to destroy Clottey, I hope it will impress the boxing world and create more demand for the Floyd superfight. Clottey is very lucky that he's fighting Cintron, who he has a realistic chance against, but Cintron will probably stop him too.

It's not hard to tell that Margarito is overrated and why he was so hyped in the first place makes no sense to me. He's very open and easy to hit/counter (which also puts Williams down in my book because he had trouble connecting shots on him). His strengths are that he has pretty good power (definitely not "big" power though), great stamina, a great chin, throws a ton of punches, and is physically large. But the strengths that make him dangerous (stamina/large output) are not great when you really look into them. He throws a lot of punches, but unlike fighters like Juan Diaz/Pacquiao who throw punches nonstop with a lot of force for 12 rounds, he doesn't really committ to half of them and most of them are not thrown with full force, especially the jabs. So what you have in Margarito is basically a sloppy pressure fighter with some power and a great chin/stamina who can break down boxers who A) have bad stamina or B) have bad defense. I'm not sure if Judah-Margarito is being made or not, but everybody (including posters like Brooklyn who's amazing at predicting fights) is picking Margarito to win. I still say that Judah will beat him. I think he would be pretty focused/motivated for this fight and wouldn't show up like he did against Baldomir. Judah has the quickness to greatly frustrate Margarito defensively/offensively. Judah would dominate him in the first half and win enough rounds in the second half to earn a clear decision victory. Margarito is open to everything Judah throws and I can see Judah looking very impressive to the judges landing his quick step in-step out counter right hook over and over right on the chin. If he opens a cut on Margarito (very possible), it would be even easier to win.

Well, that's enough about these two. Lets try not to take them seriously until they actually get an impressive win and concentrate more on some real elite level fighters who barely get talked about on here.

 

His defense is far from top-notch and thinking that Cotto will have trouble landing on Clottey is laughable.

It's obvious that weight draining affected Cotto's chin greatly at 140. At 147 Cotto took Judah's and Mosley's best shots, there is no way the light punching Clottey will even come close to knocking him out. Nobody underrates Clottey's power, but there quite a few people who overrate it.