Diego Corrales steps up to the welterweight division, and we'll be here for every round of it. Hopefully this fight makes today less of a waste for championship boxing, after the uselessness of the HBO card this afternoon (Calzaghe with a third round, premature stoppage of Manfredo, and Khan with a predictable third round KO).
More on the Calzaghe fight, though. I said in the coverage down below that I felt as though it was definitely stopped too early, but also that I highly doubt we'd have seen the fight get any more competitive. Calzaghe was employing his hand speed and his pit-pat punching (Manfredo's words, the words of others, and the words I certainly use, but without disrespect) and totally dominating the overmatched Manfredo. Manfredo wasn't near Calzaghe's level, had nowhere near the foot or hand speed to keep up with him, and wasn't punching back.
It is wildly humorous to watch Calzaghe and Frank Warren do their best to duck questions about fighting Mikkel Kessler. Larry Merchant called them out on the carpet, and they looked like scared schoolkids struggling to find an answer under pressure. "Uh, talk to Frank." It's not that I object to Calzaghe fighting Jermain Taylor at some point, but will that really happen? I do object to Calzaghe/Hopkins, because I think it would be a dreadfully boring fight. I want Calzaghe/Kessler. I have to believe that, eventually, we'll get it. Maybe too late for it to be what it should be.
Anyway, join us for Corrales/Clottey. I'm eager to see what Corrales can do at 147.
DIEGO CORRALES
(40-4, 33 KO, Las Vegas, NV)
versus
JOSHUA CLOTTEY
(30-2, 19 KO, Bronx, NY by way of Accra, Ghana)