In a recent interview, former welterweight champion Joshua Clottey revealed that the toughest bout of his career came against Richard Gutierrez.
During his career, Clottey fought a who’s who of top names – like Manny Pacquiao, Zab Judah, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito and Diego Corrales. But he felt Gutierrez was as tough as his opponents get.
Clottey appeared to walk away from the sport in December 2015, after losing a decision to Gabe Rosado. But he began an unexpected comeback in 2019, picking up two wins in his native Ghana. His last fight took place in September.
Clottey and the hard-punching Gutierrez clashed some 14 years ago at Chumash Casino Resort in California.
He said Gutierrez was hitting him so hard, that he nearly pulled himself out of the bout in the fourth round.
“I fought Margarito, Zab Judah, Pacquaio, Cotto but my toughest test was Richard Gutierrez, I remember I urinated blood when the medics came for my urine samples for test. After that bout I vowed never to allow any of my children to take boxing as his or her profession” he told Accra based FM station Angel FM.
“In the round four of the bout, the guy was hitting me so hard I indicated to my corner to throw in the towel but my coach insisted I fight on…”
After fighting it out until the end of the twelfth round, Clottey was declared winner winning the IBF Inter-Continental welterweight title on the 26th of July 2006. The scores were 113-113, 115-111. 116-110. It was the first career defeat for Gutierrez.
At the moment Clottey has a record of 41 wins with 24 coming by way of knockout with five losses and was never stopped in his career.