FIGHT WEEK: OFFICIAL WEIGH-IN

NEW YORK - The weekend of New York's National Puerto Rican Day Parade wouldn't be complete without favorite son Miguel Cotto fighting at Madison Square Garden.

June 12, 2009 - by Chuck Johnson | Photos by Will Hart

For the fourth time in five years, Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs) is featured at the Garden on the eve of the big parade, but Joshua Clottey (35-2, 20 KOs) should also feel at home Saturday night when the two welterweight beltholders collide in the scheduled 12-round title bout on HBO's World Championship Boxing (10:35 p.m ET, 7:35 PT).

"It means very, very much,'' Clottey, a native of Accra, Ghana who lives in the Bronx, says of fighting at the Garden for the first time. "It is the mecca of boxing and people will always say that Joshua Clottey fought in the Garden. It means a lot to me to have that on my record before I retire."

Cotto, the WBO beltholder from Caguas, Puerto Rico, will be making his sixth overall fight appearance at the Garden and expects to have the majority of fans behind him when he enters the ring for what has become a New York tradition for boxing fans from his island country.

"I am a big fan of Puerto Rican weekend,'' says Cotto, who won by KO against Mohamad Abdulaev in 2005, decisioned Paulie Malignaggi in 2006 and KO'd former undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah in 2007 on previous parade weekends. "Fighting in front of thousands of Puerto Rican people at Madison Square Garden means a lot to me."

The fighters officially weighed in Friday at the Garden, with Cotto coming in at 146 and Clottey hitting the scales at exactly the 147-pound limit. The weigh-in was open only to media and other credentialed guests, but one old-timer among the spectators was ushered out of the building after chastising a woman for sitting in his seat. He apparently didn't realize he was talking to Cotto's wife.

Otherwise, the weigh-in was subdued and rather uneventful, with Clottey breaking into laughter after he and Cotto ended their obligatory staredown for the cameras.

Saturday night's fight is expected to be anything but uneventful as both men are wicked body punches who like toe-to-toe action. Each is given a solid chance to win by many of the boxing experts.

"If he is not going to stand there and fight I am going to chase him all over," says Clottey, 32. "If he does stand there and fight it is going to be a beautiful fight."

Clottey won a ninth-round technical decision against Zab Judah last August to capture the vacant IBF title, while Cotto stopped Michael Jennings on a fifth-round TKO in February to fill the vacant WBO title .

Cotto's victory came in his first fight since suffering his only defeat, a bloody 11th-round stoppage by Antonio Margarito last July. Rather than dwelling on losing his unbeaten status, Cotto says he used it as a lesson that has made him an even better fighter.

"Everybody learns off of every fight no matter if it is a loss or a win,'' Cotto says. "Every kind of event in your life teaches you something. I learned a lot from the first loss of my career and everybody is going to see that."

Margarito was knocked out by Shane Mosley in January and was indefinitely suspended after being found to have a plaster-like substance in his gloves before that fight. Considering the fact that Clottey also has a loss to Margarito, the Ghana fighter can empathize with Cotto that both may have been cheated out of a victory.

"That is exactly how I feel,'' say Clottey, who broke his hand in the loss to Margarito and sustained his only other defeat by 11th-round disqualification for a head butt against Carlos Baldomir in 1999. "I feel that I am undefeated. I really want to get to Cotto. When I get to the ring and Cotto beats me fairly, I will tell everybody that I lost for the first time. But I feel I am going to win the fight."

It's expected that the winner will move in line for a potential lucrative fight against Manny Pacquiao. Top Rank's Bob Arum, who promotes both Cotto, Clottey and Pacquiao, says no decisions will be made until after the fight. But with the welterweights currently rating as boxing's most competitive division, any number of scenarios are possible involving Clottey, Cotto, Pacquiao, Mosley and the winner of the July 18 bout between Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez.

The only thing that matters to Cotto is Saturday night against Clottey.

"I never expect an easy fight from any fighter,'' Cotto says. "I always train hard and this fight is no exception. I am ready for anything that Joshua can bring."