..Joshua "The Grand Master" Clottey.. (35W-3L-20Ko's) born on March 16, 1977 in Accra, Ghana and fights out of the Bronx, New York is the former IBF Welterweight Champion.
Clottey rose to prominence by winning his first twenty fights, including 14 by knockout. His performance set him up to fight Carlos Baldomir, in a title defense by Baldomir for the WBC International Welterweight Title. Clottey lost by disqualification in a controversial fight. Clottey was winning the fight until the 10th round, where he was penalized two points for an intentional head butt. He was warned for leading with his head but did it again resulting in the referee stopping the fight and disqualifying Clottey.
Clottey rebounded from the loss by winning the African Boxing Union welterweight title in his next fight. He then rolled off a 10 fight winning streak which was highlighted by his first win on American soil and the capturing of several minor welterweight and middleweight titles culminating in an IBF Intercontinental welterweight title.
On December 2, 2006, Clottey earned his first shot at a world title but broke his hand in the fourth round of his fight against World Boxing Organization champion Antonio Margarito. He ended up losing a closer than expected unanimous decision, but had demonstrated his abilities against a good opponent. On April 7, 2007, Clottey earned a unanimous decision over Diego Corrales, in what was Corrales' final fight prior to his tragic death.
In December 2007, Clottey positioned himself for another title shot with a win over prospect Shamone Alvarez.[2]
Clottey beat Zab Judah on August 2, 2008, for the IBF Welterweight title that had been vacated by Antonio Margarito.
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Joshua Clottey had his most recent fight was against Miguel Cotto(33W-1L-27Ko's) for Cotto's WBO welterweight title on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 147 Pounds at Madison Square Garden, New York,USA. The fight was only for the WBO title because Clottey vacated his IBF Belt. Cotto scored a flash knockdown catching Clottey off balance in the first round of the fight, Clottey Immediatly became more involved in the fight and scored a unintentional cut on the left eye of Cotto via headbutt. Clottey outclassed Cotto blocking everything Cotto threw with ease depite cottos late round activness, and Clottey landed all his clean power shots at will. Cotto's flurrys were thrown with energy but with amatuer accuracy. The referee also seemed to play a Cotto favorite when Cotto frustrated by a professional, resorted to illegal tactics throwing clottey to the canvas + he hit clottey with a deliberate foul to the back of the head + threw several intentional low blows and not once did the referee warn, take a point(s), or disqualify Cotto.......and ultimately the score cards went 115-112 cotto/ 114-113 for Clottey/ and the highly contraversial 116-111 for the cotto win and Clottey robbery!!........
Joshua "the Grand Master" Clottey"i cant believe it, cotto is a good fighter but i do not respect the decision, "He puches but i am blocking!, “I think I won the fight, but I didn’t get the decision,” said Clottey. “The thing that would make me happy is a rematch. I am very upset!, but I have to move on. But what will make me happy is for Mr. Bob Arum to give me a rematch"....
