Joshua Clottey in Crossroads War

What do reality shows, sports tournaments' playoffs, and boxing crossroad bouts have in common? The answer may be difficult to figure out, but simple. One of the competitors will go on, while the other one will be left on the road, a road filled with uncertainty and misery. Sports have a reality show element to them, and boxing is not the exception. What's more, boxing combines America's modern obsession with reality shows with its old fashioned obsession with instant gratification.

On April 7th, two fighters who have been shown reality in their last three fights combined, will collide in what figures to be an entertaining and future defining bout. Nevada resident Diego Corrales, a native of California, faces Ghanaian Joshua Clottey at a yet to be determined place. Corrales, a Colombian-Mexican who is also American by birth, is coming off two losses against archrivals Jose Luis Castillo and Joel Casamayor, while Clottey was taken to school by Antonio Margarito in a bid for the WBO Welterweight title.


From the onset, this bout looks like an event that will take place in order so that both Corrales and Clottey find out where in their careers that they stand. It's like when someone gets lost while driving in a foreign place and the person takes out a map to find his or her way out. Corrales and Clottey, however, will be searching for their way back into the championship picture.


Corrales, 40-4, 33 KO’s, is a heavy handed 29 year old, who may just be beginning to show signs of slowing down. The beating he took at the hands of Floyd Mayweather, JR., his wars with Castillo and Casamayor, and even his exciting win over Acelino Freitas came in contests that were brutal. While it is true that Castillo had an unfair advantage when he was allowed to fight Corrales while overweight on their rematch, there are some signs that can't really be overlooked. Corrales only won their first fight with a lucky punch, having taken a beating before he turned things around and got his win over Castillo in one of the most incredible slugfests of recent boxing history. Furthermore, it's hard to forget that Corrales also employed his own under the hat trick during that bout, when he dropped his mouthpiece, which gave him extra time to recover his wind and stamina. And then, there is that close defeat to Casamayor in his most recent fight, which completed a trilogy with the Florida based Cuban.


Now, one case that I like to remember about a fighter who came back from the ashes and formed another firestorm is Roberto Duran. Duran had ho hum performances against Luigi Minchillo and Nino Gonzalez, and then lost to Wilfred Benitez and Kirkland Laing in consecutive bouts, before securing his place in the International Boxing Hall of Fame by beating Davey Moore and Iran Barkley for two more titles, and by giving Marvin Hagler hell before fading in the last two rounds and losing the fight by extremely close but unanimous decision. But Corrales is not Duran. Duran was a shoo in Hall of Famer way before he beat Barkley for the WBC Middleweight Title in 1989. While Corrales has had an important career that has spanned 3 major organization championships in two decades, his place in the Hall of Fame is still not secured. Not yet.


Bronx, New York, resident Clottey, 30-2-1, 19 KO’s, for his part, is a solid jawed fighter who can box and punch. He has shown promise in his recent outings, including the trashing he took at the hands of Margarito. He was beaten by the Mexican, but survived the constant attack of one of the hardest hitters in today's welterweight division. He was actually giving him a close bout until he got injured, and did not quit after. He also took Richard Gutierrez's undefeated record with him by a twelve round majority decision, and has beaten some decent opposition in Steve Martinez, Marlon Thomas, Marcos Primera and Cameron Raeside. Those guys, of course, are no Diego Corrales or Jose Luis Castillo, but they have a name in the sport and had positive records when Clottey beat them.

Clottey's been boxing as a professional for 12 years now, but he spent the first few years of his career toiling around Africa in little known under cards. He got vast experience...as a traveler, that is. Apart from presentations in his home country of Ghana, he fought in Benin, Togo, and the Ivory Coast before venturing to England, where boxing in general receives more attention than in Africa. But the opposition he faced in Africa was nothing special.


In England, Clottey improved his opposition quality a little, the only real name fighter that catches one's attention on Clottey's record there being former world Welterweight Champion Carlos Baldomir, whom Clottey was dominating in the scorecards before getting disqualified for head-butting in round eleven of their encounter. When one remembers Baldomir beat Zab Judah with a close but convincing decision to win the world title, the fact Clottey was leading Baldomir at the time of the stoppage becomes a little bit more interesting.


Clottey's main aim in the United States is to be able to join countrymen David and Al Kotey, Azumah Nelson and Ike Quartey as major championship holders, and to take that a step further and become undisputed Welterweight Champion. Considering he already lost to Margarito for the WBO Belt, and the other Champions are the WBC's Floyd Mayweather, JR. (at least until May 5, when he faces Oscar De La Hoya for the WBC Junior Middleweight Title), interim WBC boss Shane Mosley, the WBA's Miguel Cotto along with IBF's Kermit Cintron, the task looks daunting at best.


While a solid puncher with highlight knockouts, Corrales does not have Mike Tyson or Lennox Lewis, stop them right on their tracks power. Ghanaian boxers, on the other hand, are known for their chins, which compete with Mexican chins for supremacy as boxing's hardest to break, steel chins. That and the fact that Corrales is the one moving up in weight, tells us that Clottey may actually have a shot at scoring a mild upset and defeat Diego. But in reality, we will only know for sure when the fight takes place.