Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey: An Episode of the Golden Girls was More Exciting!

Posted by By Sports Session at 15 March, at 12 : 23 PM Print

In front of 50,000 fans at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Saturday night, Joshua Clottey decided the most exciting thing anyone would see was his pre-fight shimmy from the locker room to the ring—a sultry performance that would have made the dance’s originator Prince Naseem Hamed blush.  Clottey even added a little shimmy to his step during the fight, which I am not sure you can call a taunt or just plain buffoonery.

Heading into the WBO welterweight title bout as a 7-1 underdog, Clottey had never been knocked out. His three professional losses to Carlos Baldomir, Antonio Margarito, and Miguel Cotto all went the distance. Nonetheless, Roach was so confident in Pacquiao’s ability that he went on record with every publication that listened the past few weeks and predicted that Clottey would be stopped before the end of the match.

A prediction that the proud boxer must have heard and figured he could do something about—if nothing else. A theory that resounded through the press conference after the fight.  Clottey rarely threw punches and spent the vast majority of the fight standing still with his chin down, his gloves (set) up, and his muscular arms protecting his midsection. Pacquiao, the epitome of a prizefighter, did everything he could to make the contest exciting, throwing an astounding 1,231 punches to Clottey’s 399.

Clottey practically refused to participate in the bout. Pacquiao went on to win unanimously, 120-108 119-109 119-109, taking 34 out of 36 rounds on the three judges scorecards.  It is my firm belief that Clottey had no desire to win that fight, he was being much too nice and complementary of Pacquiao.  I am not saying he should have told him he was going to eat his children or anything like that, but in order to beat someone up you have to get in a mindset that they are your enemy (even if it’s fake or temporary).

I don’t get the feeling that Clottey ever did that, and he was content just blocking Manny’s punches and going 12 rounds.  I watched the fight with some friends and they thought Clottey was employing some clever strategy like the rope a dope or something of that nature.  I saw fairly early in the fight there was no strategy except defend, defend, defend, counter punch.  That was about it, the comment I made to my friends was that in order to beat a champion you have to take chances and Clottey did not take any.  There have been many times where a champion was in a close bout and the challenger appeared to have won, but he judges gave the champ the benefit of the doubt.

Clottey did not come close to doing that, and to his credit he did at least create some swelling on Pacquiao’s eye.  That hasn’t been done to him in a very long time, so at least we all know he is human.  The fight was fairly boring, let’s just hope Mayweather beats Mosley and they can agree on terms to make the mega fight happen.

Front Page Features MMA & Boxing 12 rounds, antonio margarito, arlington texas, Bob Arum, carlos baldomir, Cowboys Stadium, jerry jones, joshua clottey, manny pacquiao, miguel cotto, prince naseem hamed, prizefighter, punches, title bout, WBO