Classy Clottey wins unanimously

Former IBF welterweight title holder Joshua Clottey, pounded out a near-shutout decision against journeyman Jorge Silva in a junior middleweight bout last Saturday night on the undercard of the Canelo Alvarez-James Kirkland junior middleweight fight at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas.

Two judges scored the bout a shutout, 100-90, and one judge gave Silva two rounds for a score of 98-92.

Clottey (39-4, 22 KOs) put in solid work as he let his hands go and could barely miss with his right hand. He also backed up Silva with body shots throughout the fight.

An accidental head butt seemed to shake up both fighters in the sixth round and a toe-to-toe exchange in the final round brought the crowd to life.

Clottey, 37, who is based in New York, was supposed to face Alvarez in December in the first bout of Alvarez's HBO contract, but the fight was cancelled when Alvarez pulled out due to a lingering ankle injury. 

The Ghanaian was put on the card to partially make up for not getting the Alvarez fight as well as to be on standby to fill in case Kirkland had fallen out for any reason.

"It was a good fight," Clottey said of his performance. "I took this fight (after the fight with Canelo didn't happen last year) because I needed to get in the ring fast."

Clottey beat Zab Judah to win a welterweight world title in 2008 and later gave up the belt in order to challenge Miguel Cotto for his welterweight title in 2009, coming away with a split decision loss. 

In his next fight in 2010, after a 10-month layoff, Clottey lost a lopsided decision to Manny Pacquiao, who had won the belt by knocking out Cotto, in which Clottey was roundly criticised for barely throwing any punches in an awful performance.

"The Pacquiao fight was not the end of me. Boxers make mistakes," Clottey said. "The people have to forgive you."

Clottey has fought four times since the Pacquiao debacle, including in April 2014 when he impressively outpointed former super middleweight titleholder Anthony Mundine in Australia to land the fight with Alvarez that was eventually called off. Silva (19-9-2, 15 KOs), 23, of Mexico, lost his sixth fight in a row and for the seventh time in his last eight bouts.