In the third, an accidental clash of heads opened a gash on Cotto's left eyelid, but the Puerto Rican overcame the grisly cut and several ferocious rounds from Clottey afterwards. He then regained control of the bout, went through with it and won it narrowly, but quite deservedly.

Judges Don Trella and John McKaie scored the bout for Cotto, 116-111 and 115-112 respectively. Tom Miller scored the bout 114-113 for former IBF champion Clottey.

Clottey was so devastated by the narrow loss that he screamed after the decision, “Oh no! This can't happen.”

“I fought my heart out,” the Ghanaian said in a televised interview after the fight. “I'm chasing the guy. He's running. I'm blocking the punches. So I don't know what I have to do to win the fight.”

No one seemed to be caring about the losing side – all eyes looked at Cotto’s corner after the fight.

“You have to use your skills and you have to use your mind,” Cotto said. ”I understood if I'm moving the last four or five rounds, I'm going to get the victory, because I'm in front of the fight. If I keep working I'm going to get the win.”

“I just tried to keep to my plan and forget about the cut,” he said, adding, “I just tried to forget about the blood running into my eye and make my people proud.”

And finally, Bob Arum, promoter of the best pound-for-pound boxer Manny Pacquiao, expressed his preference for the Filipino ring icon to face off with Cotto in his next fight. Speaking after Saturday’s title fight at Madison Square Garden in New York, Arum said he would speak to Cotto and his advisers to organize a possible Pacquiao-Cotto tussle, which he feels would be a “tremendous fight”.