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There were 2 major boxing shows on Saturday. The one on HBO featured Zab Judah vs. Joshua Clottey. Here is the original recap of the match between Joshua Clottey and the late Diego Corrales:

Showtime Championship Boxing America's Fight Night Recap

April 7, 2007

Shrine Mosque-Springfield, Missouri

1.  Welterweight (147 pounds) 10 Round Match:

Diego Corrales (40-3, 33 KO's, 149 pounds) vs. Joshua Clottey (30-2-1, 20 KO's, 149 pounds)

Corrales is coming off two straight losses.  The first loss was to Jose Luis Castillo in a rematch of arguably one of the ten greatest boxing matches of all time.  The rematch was marred by controversy, as Castillo missed making weight on his three attempts and the title was not on the line.  Corrales ended up being knocked out by an illegally large Castillo setting up a rubber match for the title Corrales had won from Castillo in the first fight.  To the dismay of all, again upon three chances to make weight, Castillo again failed to meet the 135 pound weight requirement.  This time Corrales wisely called off the fight, not wanting the a repeat of the second fight.  Corrales then moved on to put his WBC Lightweight Championship on the line against Joel Casamayor and amazingly this time, Corrales failed to make weight.  The fight went off anyway, for the title, with an overweight Corrales and Casamayor won the title in a split decision.  Had Corrales won the fight he would have been stripped of the title the Monday after the fight anyway.  Given the problems making weight, Corrales decided to move up 2 weight classes. He is beginning with this non-title match to open his career at 147 pounds.

Clottey is coming off a decision loss in a title fight to Antonio Margarito.  In the bout Clottey was leading on all the judges scorecards after 5 rounds, when he then suffered a left hand injury.  Barring that injury he may have won the match and the title that night.

Diego Corrales' keys to victory (according to Al Bernstein):  1.  Keep distance and do not end up brawling inside.  2.  Do not trade left hooks.  3.  Throw basic straight punches.

Joshua Clottey's keys to victory (according to Al Bernstein):  1.  Fight inside, where he can use his superior strength. 2.  Throw combinations on the inside. 3.  Throw lots of left hooks.

Clottey is 29 years-old and has been a pro for the last 12 of them.  He has only the loss to Margarito and another loss via a questionable disqualification, blemishing his record.  Were Clottey to lose tonight, he may be labeled a fighter who cannot win the big match.

Clottey is explaining in his prematch interview that he broke both his left and right hand during his last bout, where a finger connects to the hand on each hand.  Since then, the boxer born in Ghana, went back to Africa (he does not specify where in Africa) and had his hands fixed.  He should be fully healthy for this match and will have the advantage being a true welterweight.

Diego Corrales has hired a new trainer, Dicky (Dick) Wood (possibly the greatest pornstar name ever, but actually the man's real name as well), a person he has known since he was a preteen.  The training Corrales has done would make it nearly impossible, in his mind, to ever go back down to 140 pounds as he has reshaped his body for this fight.  Corrales has also personal problems going into this fight, besides coming off the two losses.  He was fined $240,000 for missing weight in the Casamayor match.  His former trainer is suing him for alleged money owed and that is ongoing.  Promoter Gary Shaw and Corrales had an ugly split after the Casamayor fight.  The two have since reconciled, but the break up still cost Corrales a fair amount of money.  Corrales wife is unable to travel to this bout because she is 6 months pregnant.  Throughout all of the problems with the Castillo fights, his wife was out in front dealing with everything with Diego and including doing the media interviews.  Corrales is acting very up beat and excited heading into this fight, showing these things will not effect his in ring performance and he has thirty minutes to prove it.  Showtime is making it clear this show is all about building Corrales.

At this point they plug the upcoming events on Showtime and include the EXC show, listing the airings of the preview shows and there are a ton.

Clottey is coming to the ring weighing in unofficially the night of the fight at 170 pounds.  At the weigh in he missed making weight the first time by weighing in at 151 pounds.  After 2 hours in a sauna he came back at 149 pounds which was the contracted weight and the fight is good to go.  Clottey is a little more than 2 to 1 betting favorite.  Clottey is most of the experts pick to win.  The announcers are starting to emphasize how dangerous an opponent Corrales picked for this fight.

Corrales says he is now training to fight and not lose weight fighting at welterweight, coming into the fight unofficially at 160 pounds.  Corrales is 2.5 inches taller then Clottey, everything else is the same.

Corrales is rocked by a Clottey right hand with about 30 seconds to go in round 1 and tries to hold on to Clottey to slow the action.  Clottey shaking off Corrales, who has a solid hold of Clottey's left glove, accidentally sends Corrales to the mat.  The referee correctly rules it a slip, but the action is paused.  That gives Corrales a few seconds to recover and lessens Clottey's advantage with only fifteen seconds to go in the round.  Easy, round 1 to Clottey, 10-9.  Round 2 sees Clottey on the outside scoring with hard punches, both to the body and head.  Corrales appears to have quickly abandoned his game plan and is midway through the round already freely brawling with the bigger stronger Clottey.  Round 2 to Clottey, 10-9.  Corrales is bleeding from his nose at the end of the second round.  Corrales has already been warned multiple times about his punches straying south and he could very easily lose a point in this fight if he does not greatly improve his punch placement.  Clottey is bulling in with his head in the clinches, making the chances of a cut opening up from a clash of heads very likely.  Round 3 to Clottey, 10-9.  This is a very exciting fight absolutely worth watching.  Corrales is again warned for low blows in round 4 and he is real close to losing a point.  Bernstein is comparing elements of this fight to Corrales-Castillo 1 and there are some early similarities.  Round 4 to Clottey, 10-9.  This fight is not as big a blow out as it sounded earlier.  This is great, go find a replay as soon as you read this.  This is the pure sport of boxing, with great body punching and combinations being thrown.  Round 5 is a complete see-saw affair with great back and forth action.  Clottey takes round 5, 10-9.  This is awesome.  Press row scoring has it through round 5 with all three people scoring it 49-46, giving Corrales round 5.  Bernstein made round 5 even making his score 50-46.

Clottey is getting tired and only fighting in brief spurts, but they are some impressive spurts.  Corrales has been busier the last two rounds, but Clottey seemed to land just enough big punches to win the round.  Round 6 to Clottey, 10-9.  Both of those last two rounds could have easily gone either way.  This may not be a championship fight in Las Vegas, but it definitely has a big championship fight feel.  Corrales wins round 7, 10-9.  Clottey had Corrales hurt at the end of the round and definitely captured round 8, 10-9.  With 1:20 to go in round 9 a badly hurt Corrales goes down, but it was with the apparent aid of a downward push from Clottey.  The referee rules it a slip and again Corrales is given a moment to recover before the fight resumes 12 seconds later.  Now, Corrales is down and it is definitely not a slip.  A Clottey left hand with 34 seconds to go in the round sends Corrales falling backwards to the mat.  Corrales answers the referee's count and is ready to continue.  There could be some controversy here though, Corrales lost his mouthpiece on the ground and the referee had to stop the action to go have it cleaned and put back in before the fight could continue.  This bought Corrales a lot of valuable extra time to recover.  If that were not enough, the referee asked for timeout and instead around ten seconds ran off the clock before it was stopped.  This gave Clottey that much less time to finish the fight.  This likely will not have any impact on the fight, but look for something to be made of this in the future.  Corrales has previously been accused of cheating and spitting out his mouthpiece on knockdowns to buy time to recover in other fights.  Corrales survives the round, but Clottey wins it, 10-8.  The push earlier in round 8 was called correctly as showed by replay.

Corrales is now bleeding above his right eye, but it is unlikely to effect his vision in this the final round of the fight.  Corrales needs a knockout to win and everyone in the building knows it.  Round 10 was the round in which Corrales came back to knock out Castillo in their first epic encounter, so he's proven he can do it.  Clottey is not playing it safe and laying back in round 10.  It appears Clottey too, would like a dramatic finish.  A right hand with 1:07 to go in round 10 sends Corrales to the ground, skidding on his backside.  Corrales again stands in time to answer the referee's count sans mouthpiece.  The referee this time in addition to stopping time to replace the mouthpiece, docks Corrales a meaningless point for spitting out the mouthpiece.  This does not hurt Corrales, as the point meant nothing and he receives even more extra time to recover.  With 50 seconds to go the fight is to be resumed.  Clottey is still not laying back, instead throwing the most wide looping punches he has thrown all night.  As the fight ends Clottey drops to his back on the mat in pure emotion.  Joshua Clottey has just scored the biggest victory of his career.  Clottey's corner picks him up and begins carrying him around the ring to the cheers of fans.  Do not let the scorecards fool you this was a competitive great fight.  It will definitely be listed among the top matches of the year.  I highly recommend finding one of the numerous replays Showtime will put on of this show all month.

After the match Corrales explained the mouthpiece situation saying, his face is swollen and that is the reason he could not keep the mouthpiece in.  Corrales' jaw may be broken and his face is indeed very swollen.

Clottey explained his extra weight at the unofficial fight day weigh in by saying he was fully clothed at the time.

Clottey should get a title shot very soon after a performance like this.  Scoring from other unofficial scorers were: Al Bernstein had it 98-90, Clottey; and the three press members keeping unofficial scorecards all had it 99-88. for Clottey.  Corrales after moving up is now in a very tough position as he is probably stuck at this weight where he will never be an elite fighter like he was at 135 pounds.  Bernstein believes it is unlikely that Corrales could physically move down to 140 pounds, and Corrales will have a lot of tough choices to make about the future of his career now.

*Editor's Note: Corrales would never box again following this match. He died when he crashed his motorcycle a few weeks later in Las Vegas. Corrales was speeding and intoxicated at the time. His vehicle was the only one involved in the accident.