Socrates Palmer, Ray O. Campbell Jr. & Matt Goldstien @ Ringside

In a very rough fight filled with low blows and head butts, Antonio Margarito outworked Joshua Clottey to earn a unanimous decision. Early on Joshua Clottey used hand speed and effective counter punching to make the WBO champion, Margarito look slow and docile. Through the first half of the fight Clottey landed the more telling blows stunning the champ in round three, with a right counter upper cut. The tides seem to turn for the Ghanaian welterweight, as he stood in front of his stool for the beginning of the fifth round he pointed to his left hand to someone in the crowd. After the fight we found out that in fact Joshua Clottey sustained an injury to the index finger on his left hand. In true championship form, Antonio Margarito mounted a comeback. Not necessarily hurting Clottey but outworking and dictating the pace of the fight. By round nine Joshua Clottey’s work rate dropped considerably allowing, Margarito to get off first.   Margarito ceased the moment by backing the inactive Clottey into the corner, landing clean body shots and crisp combinations at will. When the scorecards were tallied the blend of lack of aggressiveness and late inactivity spelled doom for Clottey. On an evening where the champ seemingly did not have his “A” game he dug down and kept his title. After the fight, Margarito mentioned he would like to face the Cotto-Quintana winner next.

The judges at ringside scored the bout 118-109, 116-112 twice all for the “Tijuana Tornado” Antonio Margarto. .

Boxingtalk.com’s Ray Campbell scored the bout 116-113 for Clottey, Socrates Palmer scored it 115-115 and Matt Goldstein scored it 115-113 for Margarito

Socrates Palmer to Judge Grant: Let me judge you, 118-109 is not only erroneous but down right unjust.