If Dennis Green, rather than Freddie Roach, had served as the trainer for Manny Pacquiao during the Pacman's welterweight tilt with Joshua Clottey on Saturday night, I think after the fight Denny would have screamed something like this to reporters:
"Joshua Clottey is who we thought he was. He's who we thought he was. We watched film on him, we trained for him, who the (bleep) ignores film on a guy who's had the same problem his whole career?! JOSHUA CLOTTEY IS WHO WE THOUGHT HE WAS!!! AND HE DIDN'T HAVE IT IN HIM TO GO AFTER THE WIN!!!"
Or something like that.
I guess you could say Josh Clottey was made to look like a caricature of himself on Saturday night. He fought his usual, passive-aggressive fight against Manny Pacquiao, but on this night his opponent's activity trumped him so badly it made him look just passive.
Against Miguel Cotto, a great but mortal fighter, Clottey's act was enough to keep it close, with many observers believing he deserved the decision.
Against Pacquiao, a transcendent, immortal fighter, it was not nearly enough.
Against Cotto, Clottey only needed to push himself a little and it would have been his.
Against Pacquiao, he needed to fight the fight of his life in order to give himself a chance to win.
On both occasions, he was unwilling to walk the necessary miles. And against Pacquiao, Clottey's fatal flaw was more glaring than ever.
In the fifth round, Jim Lampley said, "I'm not sure Joshua Clottey came to win tonight."
He didn't.
In the sixth Lampley said Clottey was "Not willing to lay himself on the line to win the fight."
That pretty much sums up Josh Clottey, Jim.
In the eighth round Lampley began yelling, "Bang...bang...bang...bang..." as Manny fired away at a shelled up Clottey, who refused to throw back. But try as he might, Lampley wasn't able to make the fight exciting because Josh Clottey was not going to allow it to be.
He showed up, and fought, but not really.
By the last quarter of the fight, Clottey's trainer, Lenny DeJesus, was pleading with his fighter to take a chance, to let his hands go, but Clottey wouldn't do it. And so at the end of the night one judge had scored the fight a shutout for Pacquiao, while the other two had Clottey winning the third round. I scored it a shutout.
It's easy to be critical of Clottey on this night, but the argument can also be made that Pacquiao forced Clottey not to try. Clottey said after the fight, "He has speed. This is the first time where I believe I lost a fight. He was waiting for me to open to counter me. I realized that I couldn't land my power punches on him, because he was so fast."
So while common sense would seem to indicate to Clottey that he needed to throw more to win, apparently the reality of Pacquiao's speed on offense and defense made the notion of him being more aggressive both dangerous and futile in the mind of the Ghanaian fighter. Furthermore, DeJesus told Max Kellerman during the fight (yes, during the fight - what is this, baseball?) that he felt Clottey was afraid to open up because he was scared of Pac's power.
And indeed, after another one-sided victory I mean to give Manny Pacquiao all of the credit he deserves. Against Cotto, Large pointed out that Pacquiao showed us he had a Margarito-esque chin; against Clottey he showed us his Margs-esque stamina. We knew he had it but Saturday night it shined brighter than ever. Pacquiao threw more than 100 punches per round.
The other thing that was very impressive about Pacquiao on Saturday night was his ability to stick to the gameplan. To fight from the outside, work Clottey to the body, and in general just keep pounding away, at the guard, around it, under it, content in racking up points against a man who declined to throw back. He didn't get frustrated and try to force anything to happen, he didn't worry about getting a knockout. He is an intelligent and disciplined fighter now, on top of everything else.
Clottey didn't really try to win Saturday night, but he was also well out of his league.
So, where do we go from here? Well, we know where we go from here. Let the Mayweather-Mosley mania start for real now. In the ring after the fight Pacquiao and Roach called out Floyd Mayweather Jr., saying they want to fight him.
During the HBO wrap-up, Max Kellerman's final words spoke for all of us.
"Should Mayweather beat [Shane] Mosley, it must happen," he said.
Yes.
For more Pacquiao vs Clottey updates, visit http://pacquiao-vs-clottey.cebuspace.com/.
Source: sportingnews.com
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