ESPN Boxing

LAS VEGAS -- Boxers get it all the time after winning a fight: "Whom do you want to fight next?"

It was an innocent enough question for Joshua Clottey, who had just beaten Lloyd Joseph in a 10-round decision in June 2004. Clottey said he wanted to fight Zab Judah for Judah's welterweight title.

Apparently, that challenge didn't sit too well with Judah, who sought out Clottey at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, N.Y., the next week.

"It was a week after my fight and I was working out in the gym and he came in and asked me why I wanted to fight him," Clottey told ESPN.com. "He said he would give me money to spar with him. I said I didn't want his money. I wanted to fight him. Then he started acting crazy."

Clottey said he went about his work but Judah and his entourage wouldn't stop taunting him. When it became too disruptive, Clottey and his trainer confronted Judah.

"He pushed my trainer and he wanted me to go outside and fight him," Clottey said. "He really didn't want that because I'm a very good street fighter. That's how I started boxing."

Clottey (34-2, 20 KOs) is finally getting his wish. He and Judah (36-5, 25 KOs) will meet for the vacant IBF welterweight title at The Palms in Las Vegas on Saturday night. The match will be preceded by a rebroadcast of last week's WBA welterweight showdown between Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto. The winner of Clottey-Judah has an inside track to fighting Margarito in a welterweight unification match.

Clottey watched Margarito-Cotto with special interest. He had fought Margarito for the WBO title and lost a 12-round unanimous decision in 2006. Clottey was beating Margarito until he injured his hand midway through the match.

"Margarito is not a great boxer," Clottey said. "You can see all of his punches coming. I was catching everything he threw. Even though his defense is not very good, he takes a hard punch. I thought it was not good for Cotto to spend so much time on the ropes, taking punches.

"I was beating Margarito until I hurt my hand. But I never feared any of his punches because I'm a very good defensive fighter and I caught most of his punches."

Vinny Scolpino, Clottey's manager, believes his fighter's defensive prowess will carry him past Judah.

"Even with Judah's speed, the defensive skills of Joshua will be his advantage," Scolpino said. "He's able to throw the hook to the body and the head and then protect himself."

Like Margarito, Clottey has a granite chin, so he should be able to withstand some of Judah's hardest shots. Clottey's brother, Emmanuel, who sparred with Judah in the past, has said that Judah has a tendency to fade after five rounds. No secret there; that is the book on Judah.

Judah believes that Clottey will wilt under the pressure of the moment because he hasn't been in very many big events. He thinks he'll get him early. Clottey said he shouldn't count on that happening.

"The surroundings of the fight don't matter to me," Clottey said. "I just want to beat Judah and win the title."

Clottey has been in tougher circumstances and, according to him, against tougher guys. Clottey was raised in Bokum, a rough area in Accra, Ghana, that spawned the likes of super featherweight great Azumah Nelson and welterweight titlist Ike Quartey.

"In Bokum, you have to be a man," Clottey said. "You can't be soft because everyone will beat you up. You have to fight every day to prove that you're a man."

Clottey was a good soccer player, but he was more noted as a street fighter and often found himself in dustups during soccer matches. He caught the eye of a boxing trainer, who told him that he might be missing his calling and invited him to the gym to put on the gloves.

Once inside the boxing gym, Clottey said he felt like he was at home.

Clottey developed so well that Quartey used him as a sparring partner while preparing to fight Oscar De La Hoya in 1999.

Clottey came to the U.S. to get a fresh start on his career after having a falling-out with a previous manager. While in America he hooked up promoter Lou DiBella, who wound up selling Clottey's contract after five years.

"I always thought he had a lot of ability," DiBella said. "He's a good fighter. I thought he could be a little more fiery. He's got a chin of granite and it's almost impossible to hurt him."

The most noteworthy fights on Clottey's résumé are a bogus disqualification against Carlos Baldomir in England in 1999, the loss to Antonio Margarito and a 10-round decision victory in 2007 against the late Diego Corrales, in which Clottey dropped Corrales in the ninth and 10th rounds.

DiBella believes the run-in with Judah at Gleason's Gym in 2004 should serve to light a fire under the low-key Clottey.

"If you know anything about New York boxing, it's a much more interesting fight," DiBella said. "These are two guys from the same town who have a beef outside of the ring. They just don't like each other."

Tim Smith is the boxing columnist for the New York Daily News.