Cotto returns to ranks of elite with hard-fought decision over Clottey - Sports Illustrated

Photo: From the third round on, Miguel Cotto (right) had to contend with blood from an accidental head butt by Joshua Clottey. - AP NEW YORK - June 14, 2009 -- It's never just a prizefight when Miguel Cotto, the welterweight champion from Puerto Rico, headlines a card at Madison Square Garden. Only a select few fighters can sell out this room in a down economy. Even fewer can stir the sort of mania Cotto inspires, with cowbells, airhorns, thundersticks and reggaeton lending to the overall feel of a revival meeting. That carnival atmosphere is only amplified when Cotto fights here on the weekend of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. Saturday's WBO welterweight title defense against Ghana transplant and Bronx native Joshua Clottey marked the fourth time in five years Cotto has rung in those festivities with a Garden fight during the second weekend in June. With his alphabet belt at stake against one of the top contenders in the sport's prestige division, Cotto did not disappoint. The welterweight champion outpointed Clottey and retained his piece of the 147-pound title with a gutsy split decision. John McKaie (115-112) and Don Trella (116-111) favored Cotto, with Tom Miller (114-113) dissenting. It wasn't a cut-and-dried result -- SI.com scored it 115-113 to Clottey in a bout replete with swing rounds -- but neither Cotto nor 17,734 of his closest friends are going to lose sleep over the details. What matters is this: In his first high-profile outing since last year's defeat at the dubious hands of Antonio Margarito, Cotto reasserted his place in the top tier of boxing's deepest weight class. "I'm here after a questionable loss, everybody knows it," Cotto told reporters during a brief news conference before getting whisked away to the hospital for stitches. "I never said anything about that. I'm never going to make any excuse in any fight." Cotto had lost just once in 33 paying fights before Saturday, ceding his welterweight title to Margarito in July 2008. In that fight, Margarito summoned a superhuman effort to come from behind and stop Cotto in the 11th round. But six months later, Margarito was caught with loaded gloves before his loss to Shane Mosley -- an offense that earned a one-year license revocation and cast doubts over his entire body of work. [Open link for full story in Sports Illustrated Online.]