Clottey: Inactive in fight of his life

It was as one-sided as can be with Manny Pacquiao winning over Ghanaian challenger Joshua Clottey by a mile, 120-108 (which meant Pacquiao won all 12 rounds) and 119-109 (score of two judges). I had Pacquiao ahead in my own scorecard by a wide margin, 120-109. Pacquiao improved his record to 51 wins (38 by knockout), three losses and two draws. The victory marked the Filipino boxing icon’s first win of 2010 and his 12th consecutive since 2005.

The bout, held Saturday night (Sunday in Manila) was seen by a live audience of 50,994 at the newlyrefurbished, ultra modern Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. One report stated that the Pacquiao-Clottey crowd was the third largest in boxing history. Tim Dahlberg of the Associated Press points out that Saturday night’s crowd was “the biggest crowd in the US for a fight since Mexican idol Julio Cesar Chavez fought Pernell Whitaker at the Alamodome (also in Texas) in 1993”. The biggest turnout to date however for a boxing event was the 120,000 crowd that came to see Greg Haugen try to capture Chavez’s world title in Mexico on Feb. 20, 1993.

Although there was unanimous praise for Pacquiao’s performance, the same could not be said for Clottey. The challenger to Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title disappointed not only the 400 other fans at the BMW Autohaus showroom (which was converted again by board chairman Tony Aquino into a mini-theatre where invited guests could view the fight in full comfort) but also to millions of fans all over the world who expected Clottey to live up to his pre-fight hype of bringing the fight to Pacquiao.

Despite the “exhortations” of trainer Lenny de Jesus (others said de Jesus sounded like a teacher publicly upbraiding a stubborn pupil who refused to follow instructions), Clottey stuck to his extremely defensive style and did not exploit his size advantage. Noted boxing writer Jake Donovan said that with four rounds to go, de Jesus was blunt in his assessment of his client’s performance: “You’re losing every damn round”. The statement seemed to matter little to Clottey who refused to let his hands go even as he was well past the point of no return, according to Donovan.

In the few times that Clottey did let his hands go, he scored with right uppercuts and straight rights that snapped Pacquiao’s head back and created that mouse under Pacquiao’s right eye. That welt was perhaps the only indication that Pacquiao was in a real fight and not a sparring session with spar- mates employed to do nothing else but test Pacquiao’s stamina and punching power.


Evidence of the one-sided nature of the fight is provided by Compubox: Pacquiao connected on 246 of 1,231 punches (103 punches per round) compared with Clottey’s 108 out of 399 (33 punches per round). Pacquiao therefore outpunched Clottey, three to one, on the average: pretty strange for a hungry fighter like Clottey who was supposed to be in the fight of his life.

In losing so lopsidedly, Clottey served to highlight the absence of chemistry between him and his trainer-coach de Jesus who used to work Pacquiao’s corner. De Jesus had urged Clottey to take his chances since, as de Jesus so rightly pointed out, “You’re in a fight and you gotta start taking chances.”

In sharp contrast is the perfect teamwork between Pacquiao and Freddie Roach, a relationship developed over the last nine years or so. The same chemistry between Pacquiao and his Filipino crew led by Buboy Fernandez, is also crystal clear, although there is talk of occasional disagreements right in the middle of a fight between Roach and Fernandez.

The chemistry between the student-younger brother (Pacquiao) and Roach (mentor-older brother) is very instructive. It is clear that Pacquiao trusts Roach and respects Roach’s professional advice. Such trust and respect can only be developed over a number of years and is fuelled by repeated successes of the team from day one.

The late Rod Nazario, former manager of Pacquiao, claims credit for discovering Roach at a time when Pacquiao was on the lookout for his breakout fight in the US. Nazario brought Pacquiao to Roach and, in no time, Pacquiao wanted to train under Roach. The rest is of course history.

At this point, all roads lead to a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr fight, assuming the latter wins against Shane Mosley on May 1. A Mosley victory should lead to a match up with Pacquaio. A dream match-up with the undefeated knockout specialist Edwin Valerio of Venezuela, is possible only if Valerio agrees to fight between 140 and 147 pounds and if the Venezuelan sorts out his US visa problems.

Source: Philip Juico  | Philstar.com