Pacquiao-Clottey

Since it is fresh in my mind still, I will take some time to talk about this phenomenon known as Manny Pacquiao taking on the Ghanaian hardman Joshua Clottey. Unfortunately it went about the way I expected it to. Joshua Clottey came in with his force-field defense and seemed like an armored vehicle against the machine gun shots from Manny. The first half eight rounds of the fight was essentially Clottey blocking, and occasionally sliding a straight right hand or left uppercut between Manny's guard. Although from my observation Manny looked worse for wear after 6 rounds, breathing harder in the corner and showing more markings on his face. But the consensus was that Clottey was not winning a single round, although I felt like he was winning plenty of moments and exchanges. Clottey was his usual cautious self though he seemed especially defensive against Manny because he did not want to get caught with a "shot out of the sky" as Teddy Atlas would put it. Clottey blocked the majority of pacquiao's shots and made MP look vulnerable in a bunch of moments, but did put on a frustrating passive display when he needed to be exchanging. MP showed good strength and stamina to continue to hit a brick wall and opened Clottey up a little bit in the late rounds, though Clottey also pursued and hit MP cleanly more often late as well. The crowd cheered every punch Manny threw, and would go quiet when Clottey connected. The general consensus was that Manny won every round. I would have given Clottey the 2nd and 11th rounds, and maybe round 1 as well. Manny's star continues to rise with the conquest of another larger foe, this time a full fledged dangerous welterweight who's never been beaten without a question in any previous fight until this time. Manny won the crowd, though he did this before throwing a single punch, and he won the judges by keeping the compubox guys busy by going to work on Clottey's arms, shoulders, and gloves. Because Manny outthrew Clottey by so much, the punch trackers probably felt more obligated to try to count Manny's punches. It was clear to me though that Manny probably woke up more sore today than Clottey. That being said, Manny took this fight by outworking Clottey.

I need to take some time to talk about this phenomenon that is Manny Pacquiao. He is doing some great things by becoming a new Oscar De La Hoya, but to me, he is far from an all time great. There are those who will use his every passing win to say that he is a pound-for-pound all timer, but the body of work is too small. He has beaten guys of all the same style, coming forward or nothing moving away from him, and he has also, like Floyd, been selective of styles, the only difference being his selected opponents are bigger (although two of them Floyd had already beaten, so even then not really). Manny is fast, powerful, and mixes punches well, but we saw from Clottey that he does not have a good defense without simply burying his opponent in punches, and he does not pursue his opponents very well which he showed against a burnt out Cotto. With these kind of obvious flaws, I don't think you can put him above even a prime Sugar Shane Mosley. If Pacquiao had run into a prime Vernon Forrest, he would have lost by a wide decision too, same with Winky Wright, who is similar to Clottey but quicker and more active, and bigger.

Although I know why people are pushing this, is because boxing needs a real mainstream crossover star that people can hold us as the noble hero, especially in light of Floyd playing the (immature and spoiled) villain. People loooove to talk about how athletes are spoiled and how all they care about is money, and here comes a guy (Manny) who is all about the people, God, and honor. Forgive me if I call cow manure on that one. If Manny wasn't about money, he would not care about contract negotiations. If he was all about God, he would not refuse to take blood tests for the Mayweather fight out of fear of making him weak, since he would believe God would protect him, and if he was all about honor, he would honor his countrymen by not allowing critics to taint them as a country that provides PEDs, however ridiculous the accusations may seem. Manny is still a human who lets his personal pride and money steer this thinking and actions, and there is nothing unusual about that. In that way, he is more of an everyman than being someone who's seemingly indestructible and only cares about fighting for his people.