Ghana Has New Champion.....

NEW YORK, Nov. 21 – Just when you thought that all the sports world was engulfed in doping scandals, embroiled in trash talking, and monopolized by guys like Me-shawn, along come a couple of fighters who manage to speak softly but still hit hard.

While junior welterweight Emmanuel Clottey of Ghana and his younger brother, welterweight Joshua Clottey, along with junior middleweight John Duddy of Ireland, may have come to America from different continents, their performances Friday night at DiBella Entertainment's Broadway Boxing show at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Times Square landed each of them squarely in the big hearts of Big Apple boxing fans.

Emmanuel Clottey was pitted in the main event of this five-fight card against Jesus Santiago, of Seattle via Mexico. As Clottey danced his way into the ring, numerous fans from his native country banged drums, hit cowbells, and held the Ghanaian flag aloft in the traditional manner to honor a warrior and inspire him on to battle. The drumming would recur periodically throughout this fight, a 12-round contest for the vacant IBA Continental Americas junior welterweight title.

Don't scoff so fast at such titles. Each of these fighters took this contest quite seriously, and saw this as an opportunity to win under the spotlight of publicity that a fight in the heart of Manhattan brings.

The durable but slow Santiago, decisioned in his last fight, an eight-rounder with Paulie Malignaggi on Oct. 24 in the Bronx, came out more aggressively than he had a month earlier. Initially Santiago tried to work Clottey's body and throw more leather than his African foe. But Clottey was not hurt by Santiago, and fired back an assortment of jabs, looping rights, left hooks, and combinations to pile up points as the rounds progressed. Santiago came forward at times, but his shots seemed to do little damage. Clottey, on the other hand, landed heavier and cleaner blows, including far more effective power shots, which eventually left Santiago's face a puffy mess.

Santiago momentarily reversed the momentum of the fight in the seventh round by working the body and then getting Clottey on the ropes. But the latter rounds all belonged to the Ghanaian, whose superior stamina, speed, and power slowed Santiago down. In the tenth, the tiring Santiago was hurt by a big right hand to the ear. Clottey battered him first with one shot at a time, then two, and again and again to amass a lead insurmountable anywhere, except maybe in a Florida election.

Although Clottey was unable to knock the rugged Santiago down, by the end of the twelve rounds he had clearly earned the victory. The judges had it 119-108, 119-109, and 118-109, all for Clottey, to give him his first professional title. Santiago applauded the decision.

Backstage after the fight, Clottey was celebrating with his newly-won belt. He posed for photographs with it as he changed his clothes and prepared to depart. Well-wishers waited for him outside the dressing room area. Say what you want about the alphabets, and it is probably all true. But if it were you in there, with your very first championship belt in your possession, you, too, would be proud.

After the fight, Clottey, now 21-5 with 14 KOs, said he prepared for Santiago, now 8-6-1, in part by watching Malignaggi's defeat of the Mexican. "He trained before he came into the ring, so I have to take my time," he explained of his patience in this fight.

Clottey, you may recall, first came to major prominence when he knocked out previously-unbeaten Muhammad Abdulaev, a 2000 Olympic gold medalist, in the tenth round of their fight on June 3 at Mohegan Sun. Promoter Lou DiBella now says that he believes Clottey, 29, is a contender. Clottey, who now lives in the Bronx not far from Yankee Stadium, said he would next fight anyone DiBella and his manager, Sal LoNano, want. DiBella said he wants someone like Bojado or Cotto.

If Emmanuel Clottey pleased his fans by taking his time to batter Jesus Santiago, then John Duddy sent his sizable contingent home happy by not taking his time. Duddy, a former Irish amateur national champion, went into this scheduled four-rounder with two knockouts in his two pro fights. He was matched up in a junior middleweight contest with Lenny Laudat, who went into the fight 3-5 with 3 KOs.

When it was over, just 108 seconds later, the crowd at the Crowne Plaza, from whatever nations and corners of the globe they may have come, were all standing and cheering in unison.

Believe it or not, there actually were a few seconds of feeling out at the start of this one. But Duddy quickly landed a huge right hand to open his assault, which dropped Laudat to the canvas. As everyone sensed that it would be over soon, Duddy started to go in for the kill. But before he could, he, too, was knocked down. Now the frenetic atmosphere turned to shocked pandemonium. No bathroom breaks in this one, folks.

Duddy got right up, started his attack again, and soon after clocked Laudat with yet another right hand that sent him down once again, and left him wobbly after he arose. But Laudat beat the count, although he was now behind in knockdowns 2-1, in less than the first half of the first round. Duddy attacked again with his powerful right, decking Laudat for what would be the third and final time in both this round and the fight. The referee waved off at just 1:48 of round one, and ruled a TKO victory for Duddy.

The crowd had greeted Duddy's entrance with a chorus of Irish songs and chants. Now after that brief scare they were ecstatic again. But Duddy, after suffering the first knockdown of his pro career, was circumspect.

"I got clumsy. I got excited. I let the crowd get to me," he analyzed right after the fight about his first taste of the canvas. But the cheering and celebration by his fans continued, and will no doubt continue even more as this amiable fighter, who now lives in Queens, becomes better known and picks up even more supporters.

Earlier, Emmanuel's younger brother, Joshua Clottey, age 26, upped his record to 25-1 with 18 KOs by stopping Miami's Jeffrey Hill, now 23-5 (18 KOs), by a TKO at the end of the sixth round.

Scheduled as an eight-round welterweight fight, Joshua Clottey's best round in this winning effort was the sixth and final round. He scored with wide shots both to the head and body, along with landing some accurate uppercuts. A powerful right hurt Hill, who retreated to the corner only to have to eat more uppercuts. Now Hill was knocked down to the canvas. He was able to get up in time as the round ended, but slowly walked back to his corner. There his cornermen had seen enough, and they told the referee that Hill did not want to continue.

In the opening fight, super middleweight Tim O'Neill of Staten Island (5-1-2, 3 KOs) won a unanimous six-round decision over Andres Larrinaga (3-12-2, 2 KOs, but not as bad as that record suggests), by scores of 58-56 twice and 59-55. In the walkout bout, heavyweight Jerome Tabb raised his record to 4-0 with 3 KOs by getting a four-round unanimous decision in a brawl with fellow New Yorker Barry Lineberger, now 4-6 with 2 KOs, by scores of 39-35 twice and 40-34.

The entire card was taped for future airing by CSI, with veteran radio host and commentator James "Smitty" Smith and former world featherweight champion-turned-analyst Kevin Kelley handling the announcing duties. According to DiBella, the card will be shown in the next few days on HDNet, a new network owned by Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban, which is only available on some digital cable and satellite services for people who have high-definition television sets. It also will be aired on other cable networks, including Madison Square Garden's cable network, beginning in the next few weeks.

One final note: Since the Emmanuel Clottey-Jesus Santiago fight was for an IBA belt, the IBA had a supervisor in attendance. His name was Greg Juckett, who looked amazingly like the Greg Juckett who has been editor of Boxing Digest. Also in the crowd was WBC supremo Jose Sulaiman, who doesn't look like any boxing writer or editor I know. I don't know if that is good or bad, but our breed of boxing journalist somehow always stands out in the crowd.

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TAUNTON, Mass., Nov. 21 – Taunton’s Hector Sanjurjo dropped a six-round majority decision to Ghana’s Mark Doku in a cruiserweight bout