As Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey make their final preparations for Saturday's fight, HBO Boxing is looking back at two past fights featuring the combatants who will main event at Cowboys Stadium.

First up, Joshua Clottey's August 2008 win over Zab Judah. Judah is the only fighter on Clottey's resume who even remotely compares to Pacquiao -- a fast, darting southpaw, but one who didn't have the power to hurt Clottey, and who also couldn't break down his defense for any sustained amount of time. Watching the fight again, it's easy to say that had Clottey been more active, Judah might well not have won any rounds at all. When they both throw, Clottey imposed his will for the most part.

Here's the full fight, courtesy HBO:

That stands to this day as the biggest win for Clottey, though I wouldn't say it was his best performance.

Also featured is Manny Pacquiao's ferocious breaking down of Miguel Cotto from last November, the biggest fight of 2009 and one that made Pacquiao a five-weight titleholder. I've watched this fight about 25 times by now, and every time I'm taken aback at just how quickly Pacquiao's dynamic offense turns this fight completely in his favor. I had Cotto winning the first, and had him en route to round wins in the third and fourth before Pacquiao floored him in both rounds. Cotto was really good on this night, at least early, and Pacquiao just beat him down. He couldn't keep up with Manny's pace.

On that November night, Cotto stood as the most imposing challenge of Pacquiao's career, and Pacquiao left him in the dust. Clottey is thicker and physically stronger than Cotto, and he has a tendency to lay back more. He's also a much better defensive boxer and I wager that he's got better punch resistance, too.

These two fights probably do offer the best insight for the Pacquiao-Clottey matchup. For HBO subscribers who don't want to watch on computer monitors, HBO On Demand does have both fights up right now in HD.

Source: Tim Smith (ESPN)

In his win last night, Joshua Clottey suffered a torn bicep that could (and probably would) keep him out of a potential November 1 date with Antonio Margarito, which means that Zab Judah might get the call.

From the Smith article:

Joshua Clottey promised that he would beat Zab Judah, and in doing so, would punish Judah to the point that he'd cry.

 

Two out of three ain't bad.

Clottey battered Judah, busted his nose and sliced open his eye, and won a ninth-round technical decision to take home the vacant IBF welterweight crown at the Palms casino on Saturday.

Clottey did not make Judah cry, though. As a matter of fact, if there was any sorrow after the fight it was on the part of Clottey, who could not cleanly put away Judah, a two-time world champion from Brooklyn, N.Y.

With his gutsy performance against Clottey, Judah (36-6, 25 KOs) remains a credible threat in the welterweight division. And because Clottey sustained a torn bicep in the fifth round of the fight, he might get leap-frogged by Judah in a possible match against Antonio Margarito on Nov. 1 if Clottey isn't healed well enough to take the date.

...

"Whether it was from a punch or a head butt, it didn't matter," [Dr. James] Gane said. "The bottom line is that he [Judah] said he couldn't see."

...

"The whole arena thought I won the fight," Judah said.

Win or lose, it's all the same to Judah -- who still might find himself on the other end of the line when Margarito comes calling for his next opponent.

Let me try to formulate coherent thoughts on how much this stinks.

If, in fact, "win or lose, it's all the same to Judah" is true, then that's pretty lame. Dr. James Gane is wrong, as if the fight was stopped correctly because a punch obliterated Judah's eyelid, it was a TKO for Clottey, and wasn't going to the cards, so that's a poor choice of words by him.

But Judah getting a shot at Margarito? Come on.

And I don't want to hear this stuff about his gutsy performance making him viable. He's not. He loses to every good fighter he faces now, and Margarito would kick his ass around the ring. Last night should have been the downright end of Zab Judah, big time fighter, barring some miraculous career turnaround that made him worthy again.

I understand that Judah can make a fight a little money, but this thing was at the Palms Casino in Vegas, which holds about 2,000 people. Judah's idiotic comments about a room full of his fans thinking he won the fight mean nothing, because the call that led to the decision was terrible in the first place. He was busted open on an uppercut.

Did anyone see Zab trying to defend the headbutt call watching the replay? He wanted to, he tried to, and when he saw himself get punched in the eye and react so poorly in slow motion, he stumbled, went mute, and then talked about what the fans in the arena thought.

Margarito-Judah is such a non-fight that if they try to put that thing on pay-per-view -- and I am sure they will, even though there's a PPV the next week with Calzaghe and Jones -- I will flat-out not lie about the fact that I will watch it on the internet and not pay a single cent for it.

I understand business, I understand money, I understand appeal, but at some point doesn't Zab Judah have to WIN A FIGHT in order to keep getting fights? Jesus, even Oscar de la Hoya has beaten Steve Forbes and Ricardo Mayorga lately, and with Oscar you can make the argument that he is perhaps the greatest money attraction in the history of the sport, period.

Margarito fighting Judah is laughable. If it comes down to no Clottey, take the fight with Paul Williams, which people want to see. Unless the former most feared man in boxing is scared of the ex-most avoided man in boxing -- nay, the world in both cases! -- then there's no reason not to do that. Dan Goossen and Paul Williams are already talking up a big proposal. They want the fight. Margarito's image is that of a man's man who will fight anyone, so make it happen.

Zab Judah doesn't deserve to be in a ring with Antonio Margarito at this point. He does not win fights, and though he's "gutsy" nowadays and gets credit for getting beaten up in a pleasing fashion, he falls apart every time out. You think the pressure and power of Margarito won't break Zab down right quick? Is Zab going to hurt Margarito?

Get serious. He is not a credible threat. He isn't a top ten welterweight anymore. He hasn't beaten a decent opponent in three years. We have to get away from the crap like this that compromises the integrity of the sport. In what other major sport would a guy in Judah's position be given a world title shot? Shouldn't wins and losses mean SOMETHING?

What a sport this can be sometimes.

via espn.com

Ghanan-born Bronx fighter Joshua Clottey stopped Brooklyn's Zab Judah via ninth round technical decision, and Armenian-born Australian Vic Darchinyan destroyed Russia's Dimitri Kirilov in a fine night at the fights that both started and essentially ends the major bouts of August.

Let's start with the IBF welterweight title fight, a good, tough fight that the judges got right. After a cut forced the fight to the cards, Clottey won on scores of 86-85, 86-85 and 87-84.

I want to say that Judah the fighter showed plenty of heart and guts, and a good chin. Clottey brought the fight to him in a big way, did his usual stuff, and showed a great beard. It turned out that he was too rugged and too strong for Judah, whose usual nice start, I thought, was followed by his usual quick fade.

Judah (36-6, 25 KO) came in at a very light 143 pounds for the fight, four pounds under the welterweight limit. Like happened against MIguel Cotto last year, it seemed clear that Judah had Clottey beat in terms of flash, pomp and things that make a crowd get excited. He was faster, still had a style about him, and still is a good fighter.

But Judah is done as a major main event's A-side. You look back over his record these days, and it's just not there. The guy can fight, yes, but he loses his big fights, and he isn't exactly Oscar de la Hoya at the gates. This loss makes him 2-4 in his last six, and the two wins came over Edwin Vazquez and Ryan Davis, while the losses have been Clottey, Cotto, Mayweather and Baldomir.

Zab and his father, Yoel, think the cut was caused by a headbutt, but replays conclusively showed that it was a punch that did it. If Judah -- who got the "how many fingers?" question wrong -- decided to end it when it ended because he thought he was ahead on the cards, he was wrong. He did think he was winning though, and blames Duane Ford (who had it 87-84 Clottey), a judge he claims has had it out for him for years.

So, really, despite the praise I give Judah, it's the same old Zab B.S., the guy with excuses for everything, and if you listen to him, has really never lost a fight just because he lost, the closest he comes to accepting defeat being against Cory Spinks, when he said he just didn't try hard enough or whatever. Jay Nady was to blame for Tszyu, low blows were to blame against Cotto, etc.

Really, the biggest problem Zab has had in his career has been himself. I respect his toughness and his natural skills, but as Floyd Mayweather said, Judah is a six-round fighter who goes away when the going gets tough later in a fight.

As for Clottey (35-2, 20 KO), he earned his win, and he's earned his success as the new IBF welterweight titleholder. A unification bout with Margarito may not happen, as Top Rank's Todd duBoef seemed less-than-committed in post-fight quotes to making the fight. It'd be easy to do since both are Top Rank fighters, but there wouldn't be huge money in it and he can be a bad matchup for Margarito, who is one of Top Rank's flagship stars.

Maybe there's more to be said right now about Judah losing than there is Clottey winning, but next week, Clottey will matter, while Judah's career moves closer to journeyman status. It's been a long, long time since he's beaten a fighter of any repute.

In Tacoma, Wash., Vic Darchinyan got back into the title ranks by manhandling Dimitri Kirilov, winning on a fifth round knockout in a bout where the Russian titlist brought nothing to the table.

Darchinyan (30-1-1, 24 KO) won every round decisively and punished Kirilov (29-4-1, 9 KO) with left hand after left hand, leaving no doubt about anything. You could feel very quickly that Darchinyan was too strong for Kirilov, who occasionally landed a nice counter when Darchinyan lunged, but Vic discovered quickly he had no fear of Kirilov's power, and fought accordingly.

People are talking a bit about Darchinyan challenging Cristian Mijares. I couldn't think of a worse idea for Vic. Mijares is a classy, super tough boxer who would make Vic look bad, simple as that.

On the undercard, Andre Dirrell fought a bit tentatively against unheralded Mike Paschall, before ending his night on doctor stoppage from a single, beautiful left hand in the fourth round. It was a punch that sliced and dug into Paschall's forehead, causing a very nasty, deep cut. I haven't read anything official, but I have to think that there was scar tissue there that blew up on Paschall. I've never seen a punch open up a forehead like that before, and though there were a couple of head clashes, those had nothing to do with it.

Paschall, to his credit, fought with no fear of the highly-regarded Dirrell and made a fairly entertaining scrap out of it. He begged the doctor not to stop the fight, pleading for one more round. And had he been given that extra round, I have no doubt that Paschall literally would've just come out winging shots, trying to rush and overwhelm Dirrell as quickly as possible.

Show starts live at 9:30. The lines are Judah (+185) and Clottey (-225). I think there's money to be made on Zab tonight, but we'll see.