The Tijuana Intangible

By Bart Barry

From training injuries to accumulated wear on cartilage and scar tissue and tendons, from damage inflicted on a prizefighter to damage a prizefighter incurs while inflicting damage, in boxing there is one constant: No athlete is much more than half himself by the halfway point of a championship bout. What a prizefighter does when he is far from his best, though, is a question of intangibles, and often what separates a champion from a talented contender.

According to their postfight statements, last Saturday night in Atlantic City both Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey were fighting with half their offensive arsenals by the halfway point of their welterweight title bout. Of the last six rounds, Antonio Margarito won five. That is why Antonio Margarito won a unanimous decision – 118-109, 116-112, 116-112 – and that is why Antonio Margarito is a champion.

None of that disparages Joshua Clottey’s talent, however. Regardless of official scorecards, Joshua Clottey outclassed Antonio Margarito last Saturday night. In fact, the Joshua Clottey who shut-out Margarito in the fight’s opening four stanzas would decision any current welterweight champion including Floyd Mayweather – in a four-round match. But then, the same could be said for the Joshua Clottey who fought four spectacular rounds against Richard Gutierrez in July.

Meanwhile, the rusty, wild-swinging club brawler disguised as Antonio Margarito, whom Joshua Clottey didn’t miss with a punch till about the twenty-third minute of the match, was no one’s “Most Feared” fighter. Instead, Margarito was a slow, shoulders-squared slugger chasing a precise counterpuncher round an enormous ring.

But then Joshua Clottey injured his left hand, stopped throwing punches, and began telling his corner how much pain he felt. Antonio Margarito, meanwhile, injured his right wrist, balanced himself on a sprained ankle, and became thrice as active as his opponent. That is why Margarito beat Clottey this time and why Margarito would beat Clottey next time, too; it’s not about speed, technique, power, or courage; it’s about some intangible Antonio Margarito has and Joshua Clottey does not.

What both men definitely do have, however, is a love for their craft. This was most evident during the fighters’ ringwalks Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall. Joshua Clottey danced with joy on his way from the dressing room. Antonio Margarito led a contingent of friends and family to ringside, smiling all the way. And both men came to center ring looking as though there were nothing they would rather do than fight.

Unfortunately, from the middle of the first round till the end of the fourth, only one man appeared ready to fight. While Antonio Margarito, recently known as the “Tijuana Tornado,” stalked Clottey and threw wide-missing hooks and uppercuts, Joshua “The Hitter” Clottey hit Margarito with almost every punch he threw. The best the WBO champ could do after each Clottey combination was nod, bang his gloves together, and smile.

Once Joshua Clottey injured his left hand, though, the fight changed altogether. Clottey went to a full-time shell defense, and while Antonio Margarito’s aggression was mostly ineffective, Clottey’s aggression wasn’t enough to win any of Rounds 5-11 on any judge’s card.

After being hurt by a left hook to the body, backed in his corner, and assaulted by Margarito in Round 9, Joshua Clottey then went out in Round 10 and did laps. Clottey also happened to land the tenth round’s best punches, but circling and running as he did, Clottey ensured no judge could award him the round. Then Margarito won the eleventh, and Clottey won the twelfth. I scored the fight 115-113 for Margarito but would understand any scorecard that read 115-113 for Clottey.

After the bout, Antonio Margarito said he looked forward to taking Paul Williams’s “zero” and also a fight with Miguel Cotto. Then promoter Bob Arum offended interviewer Jim Gray’s delicate sensibilities, somehow, by saying boxing’s best events feature Mexicans versus Puerto Ricans.

The ring cleared of Margarito and Clottey and filled with Miguel Cotto and Carlos Quintana – two such Puerto Ricans. After four spirited rounds, Miguel Cotto did to Quintana what many thought Joel Julio would do last July. He forced the referee to stop the bout at 3:00 of Round 5, and caused anyone who watched the fight to wonder, Does any pugilist brutalize his opponents so profoundly as Miguel Cotto?

Here’s something else to wonder: Would the Antonio Margarito who preceded Miguel Cotto in the ring Saturday night have been able to last till the final bell with Cotto, much less beat him?

And that is the point. By looking like a big, slow, and extremely hittable target of only average power Saturday night, Antonio Margarito may have done his career a pile of favors. While Margarito looked fantastic in exactly the wrong way against Kermit Cintron twenty months ago, he looked mediocre in exactly the right way against Joshua Clottey last Saturday night.

After seeing how easily Margarito got hit by Clottey, will Paul Williams play the role of tentative counterpuncher against the WBO champion? To Shane Mosley’s interested eyes, Margarito must now look like a small version of Fernando Vargas. And while having no chance at Fight of the Year honors, Floyd Mayweather just handily won Worst Business Decision of the Year for turning down $8,000,000.00 to fight Margarito in the fall.

But finally, and most importantly, last Saturday’s version of Antonio Margarito looked like nothing Miguel Cotto’s handlers should worry about. Which is why Antonio Margarito now needs to abandon his plans for 154 pounds, hold his promoter accountable, beat Paul Williams, and then match his intangibles against Miguel Cotto’s intangibles in 2007. Someone wrote somewhere that Margarito-Cotto would be 2008’s best fight. What’s a year between friends?

DESPERATELY SEEKING SHOWTIME
How many of us in the western states spent last Saturday’s HBO telecast with our fingers poised over mute buttons, fearful that Jim Lampley or Larry Merchant would give us Showtime results before Showtime did? Alas, Mr. Merchant’s silver tongue was still too quick for us. So, who’s to blame? Showtime. While HBO was broadcasting its event live, and spoiling Showtime’s broadcast-delayed event for half the country, what was Showtime doing in the Mountain and Pacific time zones instead of showing live boxing? Broadcasting “Desperately Seeking Susan”! That’s no way to challenge the champion.