JOSHUA CLOTTEY W tech. dec. 9 ZAB JUDAH

Sometimes a fight plays out in the ring exactly the way it was drawn up on paper, and such a fight was Joshua Clottey’s win over Zab Judah in Saturday night’s welterweight championship bout on HBO.

Conventional wisdom was that Judah would pile up points early and Clottey would come on strongly to take command in the second half of the contest, and, broadly speaking, this is what happened. For once, the conventional wisdom was spot on.

Clottey, who looked much the bigger man, was hurting and bullying Judah in the ninth round, and the end seemed to be in sight, when a cut over the Brooklyn boxer’s right eye brought matters to a conclusion.

It looked from the slow-motion replays as if Judah had been cut from a left uppercut, but referee Robert Byrd ruled it was a clash of heads.

I must admit, with Judah telling the doctor that he couldn’t see, that I feared the worst when the bout went to the scorecards. It had been a close fight, with not much in it after eight rounds. Would the fighter who was wilting, and apparently on his way out, be saved by a meeting of heads that might not even have caused the cut?

This wouldn’t have been a travesty of justice on the lines of Humberto Soto “losing” to Francisco Lorenzo, but I wasn’t ready for another hollow victory being awarded to a fighter booked for defeat (well, in the Lorenzo case he was actually beaten, which made it much worse).

To my relief, the judges got it right, with scores of 86-85, 86-85 again and 87-84 in Clottey’s favour.

Judah had seemed to be fading fast in the ninth round and it looked as if Clottey was on his way to stopping him. Judah had rallied in several rounds when it looked as if things were slipping away from him, but in the ninth he had a weary, dispirited look, his nose was gushing blood, his eyes were getting bruised and puffy and Clottey’s size and strength finally seemed to have broken him down.

When Judah told the doctor that he couldn’t see it reminded me of Hasim Rahman’s similar protestations in the fight with James Toney, or Hector Camacho Jr. against Jesse James Leija.

In times past, before the current era of technical decisions and no decisions, fighters battled on with terrible cuts because they would have lost the fight otherwise, even if a collision had caused the damage.

Of course, only Judah knows the degree to which his vision was affected, but I fear that the ending detracted a bit from his standing as a warrior (the same evening on Showtime we had seen a terribly busted-up Mike Paschall pleading for “one more round” against Andre Dirrell, which contrasted with Judah’s virtual surrender).

But, look, I could not blame Judah for seeking to get out of the fight. He was clearly a damaged, distressed fighter. He must have known that there could not have been much in it and that he might even be in the lead. With Clottey starting to put heavier pressure on him and a long way still to go, it was smart of Judah to get out of the fight and take his chances on the scorecards, if indeed this was his express intention.

Up until the ninth round, though, Judah had fought well. He showed some lovely moves and he exploded with flashy-looking combinations. As I suggested might be the case in the preview, Judah did some excellent scoring to the body.

Unfortunately for Judah, though, he was unable to budge Clottey although he did back off the Ghanaian in the eighth. Clottey just kept on coming, gloves up, blocking a lot of punches and letting Judah expend energy in two ways — by doing a lot of moving and by wasting punches on the Ghanaian's defensive shield.

As Max Kellerman noted in the HBO commentary, the fight was eerily like the one in Las Vegas the previous week in which the faster, more skilled boxer, Miguel Cotto, was remorselessly worn down by the bigger, stronger man in Antonio Margarito.

Judah can punch, and it must have been discouraging when Clottey grinned at him. This wasn’t the fake grin of a fighter pretending a punch hadn’t affected him, but one of genuine confidence, a “No, Zab, this is my night” type of grin.

While Judah was looking good in bursts, Clottey was the one doing the damage, which the judges correctly recognised, but it was frustrating to see Clottey give rounds away by marching in without letting his hands go. Yes, I am sure that in Clottey’s mind the fight was going the way he wanted it to, but a clash of heads (or what is perceived to be one) can happen at any time. His corner urged him to keep right on top of Judah all the time and not let him breathe, and in the ninth it looked as if Clottey had got the message because his body language just seemed different — his attack seemed much more concentrated.

I got the impression that Clottey could have done more, but he did enough. He got in some jabs but mostly it was the straight right hand that was Judah’s undoing, although Clottey also ripped the left hook to the body and brought up some Margarito-like left uppercuts through the middle, one of which seemed to inflict the bout-ending cut.

Clottey deserved his win, and as a champion he could be matched in interesting fights against a number of opponents, always depending on whether terms can be agreed — the welterweight division is one of the strongest in boxing with names such as Margarito, Cotto, Paul Williams, Andre Berto and Shane Mosley.

Judah will probably ask for a rematch, but I think that Clottey demonstrated he has Zab’s measure. If Judah returned to the junior welterweight division, though, he might have greater success. He scaled just three pounds over the 140-pound limit for Saturday’s fight and he looks just a bit too small for the 147-pounders. This isn’t the end of the road for Judah, but for the long-serving Clottey the IBF title offers a new beginning. He has paid his dues and it is good to see him in a position to reap some rewards.