Pacquiao vs. Clottey: The anatomy of a boring fight

By Mortz C. Ortigoza - March 7, 2010

Although Joshua Clottey is not Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto who were already washed-up when they clashed with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao, the Ghanaian boring style of fighting would bust the pockets of those fanatics who fly to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington , Texas this sunday.

His fight with Pacquiao is like watching with eternity a casket in the midst of an endless sermon of a priest in a funeral rite.

Although he can be likened to Fort Knox where his turtle like defense of gloves and forearms he loves to utilize to cover his African black face and granite-chin, fight fans do not like to watch a fighter waste all his time in the ring covering his face.

They want pugs like Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito (during their heydays) of the welterweight division who boxed and brawled and not played hide and seek.

With Pacquiao’s whirling dervish style, I could see Clottey maximizing his brand of defense as he compliments it by bending forward where his elbows can protect his kidney and lower torso.

This is a Winky Wright’s “trademark” that failed him to have a plethora of followers who love to watch sheer beatiality at the dais – even though he dominated twice thru his sneak counter punches the fast hitting Shane Mosley in their welterweight tussle.

With those entire counter depth-charges thrown by the Philippine’s Tasmania ’s devil against Joshua, we would be seeing the latter sneaking some counter-punches and some cautious lead jabs and straights to score then return to his shell-shock defenses.

Likewise, Clottey’s technical and knock out records were inferior compared to Pacquaio.

The former has 60 percent (35 Wins - 21 KOs), while the latter has 74 percent (50 wins – 37 KOs ). Joshua’s TKO/KO records could not be compared to Pacman who decked-out the likes of Eric Morales, Antonio Barrera, David Diaz, Oscar de la Hoya, Ricky Hatton, and Miguel Cotto.

What could the Ghanaian offer us? Henry Hill, Christopher Henry, Siki Benger, Didier Mebara, to name a few . Holly Molly, who are these dudes? Are they some small time illegal drug peddlers or robbers that wander in the Bronx areas in New York City and some ghettos in Accra , Ghana ?

But what made Clottey’s three loses controversial was he lost in 1999 against Argentinean Carlos Baldomir (who defeated Zab Judah but was defeated by Clottey) by disqualification as the former kept head but tings the latter in the second half of the rounds (Clottey, a soccer player in Ghana, thought he was still playing football in that match). The second lost was in 2006 to Margarito after Joshua’s dominated the first four rounds but hit the marble-like head of Mexican (whose toughness against punches cost Cotto his belt) that broke his right hand, and later his left hand. And last year his third lost was through a split decision and a controversial fight against the gassed-out and over-the-hill Cotto.

But what made this fight different is it would go to a distance and probably a decision.

With a granite-chin incased in container van and a record of not being knock-down in his entire boxing career, Pacquiao needs the shrewdness of Bernard Hopkins or even that of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to exploit any holes on the Ghanaian’s defenses to score a knockdown or a knockout.