Manny Pacquiao W 12 Joshua Clottey SCORES: 119-109, 119-109, 120-108
Manny Pacquio dominated legit welterweight Joshua Clottey in front of a crowd of 51, 000 at Dallas Cowboy Stadium. From the 1st round you could see the speed, and power difference was in Manny's favor. Manny could not get much passed Clottey's guard in the first half of the fight, so he peppered his body. Manny out worked his bigger foe in every round to get the unanimous decision. He couldn't land his power or hurt Clottey because of his turtle shell style defense. So the champion did the next best thing, he upped his output and punches per round to bank every round. What amazed me was the patience he exhibited when he couldn't get passed Clottey's guard early. Clottey looked scared of Manny's power and wouldn't open up and take the chances he needed to win. Clottey had some early success when he countered Manny, as evident in the mouse he produced under Manny's eye. Those moments of Clottey throwing punches, let alone being effective were few and far between. It looked like Clottey was afraid and went into survival mode for the majority of the fight, so he wouldn't get caught and get hurt.Even Joshua's trainer couldn't will him to throw more punches. He tried to and was begging his fighter to engage his opponent. Trainer Lenny DeJesus said to his fighter "Your losing every damn round". It was to no avail though because Clottey want no part of the Philippine machine. Every round was the same Manny on the attack throwing punches, and Joshua covering up for his life. The only round you could have given the challenger was probably the 12Th. In the final round Joshua threw more punches then he had in previous rounds and landed a good upper cut that stumbled the champion, but that only lasted for a second. Every time Clottey looked like he wanted to engage and landed some punches, Manny fought back even harder to take the rounds. Even though Manny was awesome and was totally dominant, it looked like he had trouble with defensive styles like Clottey's. If he were in there against a quicker, more accurate, counter-puncher that wasn't afraid to throw back, he may have some trouble. If someone used his aggressiveness against him, and had more courage maybe we could see a good, or even competitive fight. Manny Pacquiao is a natural born star, and that was evident by the shear number of fans that showed up to watch him fight. They were chanting Manny's name before, during and after the fight. Every time they showed him on the giant 60 yard screen before he came out they erupted cheers. Both men respected and liked each other, after each round the touched gloves and hugged before the last round. I personally think fighters should be business like during the fight and only touch gloves before the 1st bell. As far as hugging they should save it for after the fight because this is the hurt business. Clottey had this to say of his superior opponent after the fight,
" He has speed". He also offered up an explanation for not throwing as many punches as he should of, "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. In the sport of boxing you don't just win a title you have to earn it by taking it from your opponent. We know styles make fights and Joshua Clottey was made to order for Pac-Man. You have to be busy and take advantage of Manny's aggressiveness if you want any shot at winning, and Joshua obviously did not do that. HBO commentator Max Kellermen asked the question that everyone wants to know, " Do you want to fight Floyd Mayweather if he wins his may fight against Shane Mosley?". The answer came quick from the pound-for-pound king. "I want the fight, because the people want to see the fight. But it's up to Floyd if he wants to fight me. It's not a problem for me to fight him; we're ready to fight at any time. But I don't think he's ready to fight. Someday we'll be ready to fight. Mayweather should win against Mosley but if not, maybe Mosley and I will fight." That wont be an easy task because Mosley is a great fighter and could beat anyone in the world as well. The reason people are in love with Manny is because he fights not only for himself but also for the people. His aggressive style is very fun to watch and he always brings the fight to his opponent. He dedicated the fight to the fans that came to watch him, and to those who were watching him on TV, truly making him the people's champion.
Nick Thomas
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