Obviously, Joshua Clottey is a marketable commodity. But his pre Manny Pacquiao fight remarks must be taken with grains of salt, maybe 12 million grains of salt.
Like President Bam Bam in his feisty State of the Union speech Wednesday night, Clottey is hitting all the right notes.
The Ghanaian is saying that Megamanny is not superman. He says he knows how to handle southpaws. He says he won’t be in the Cowboys Stadium on march 13 merely to collect the biggest purse of his distinguished if hardly remarkable career.
Speculative promises are one thing and hot air is another. Surely, Clottey is entitled to the preflight palaver but, when he says his prayers and tucks himself into bed at night, does he believe what he says?
I don’t think so because he is not The Man who will stop The Manny.
Which brings me to a little list of fighters Clottey won’t beat and fighters he can beat:
JOSHUA CLOTTEY CANNOT BEAT:
1. MANNY PACQUIAO: The Pacman is still climbing up the ladder, a frightening thought for any foe. Is you ready for this, Mr. Mayweather? Give Sugar Shane Mosley a slim chance to derail the Pacman Express and give Mayweather the greater possibility of doing so with his slap and run style. Clottey runs second to Manny every time. Great writer J.D. Salinger just died at 91 which reminds me that, come March 13, the “Catcher in the Rye” will be Clottey, catching nearly all of Pacquiao’s punches.
2. FLOYD MAYWEATHER: Obama’s new chant is jobs, jobs, jobs, only one letter different than Money May’s old chant of jabs, jabs, jabs. I doubt Clottey wins a single round with Mayweather rolling those shoulders, dipping those hips and ramming that jab in his kisser.
