In preparation for The Event on Sunday (Saturday night in Dallas), I’m sure you have at least watched the Miguel Cotto-Joshua Clottey fight highlights on the Net. Cyberspace is a virtual repository of information with fight data and choice cuts of old bouts available through different sites.
You wanted to know Clottey a little better and to find out: a. If Manny Pacquiao will have a tough fight because Clottey’s a big natural welterweight; b. If speed will win the fight for the Pacman since Clottey likes to set up before he throws anything.
Cotto won on a split decision, although Clottey’s fierce rampage in the later rounds left the Puerto Rican with cuts and bruises.
Many say it was a controversial win, but a W is a W in boxing and decisions are hardly ever overturned in the fight game.
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But let’s get back to our two questions.
Clottey is a plodding, calculating fighter, not easily swayed by the emotional swings of a fight. He does have size, but don’t tell that to Pacquiao who has made fighting and winning against big guys a recent habit.
Oscar De La Hoya and Cotto were both cut down by Pacquiao’s unrelenting firepower that comes from a variety of angles.
Which answers our second concern: Because of his vaunted power in both fists that fire in blinding speed, Pacquiao will tag Clottey time and again.
Pacquiao victim David Diaz said that he could not see the punches coming and when they did hit, it was like being rammed by a truck.
Again, we say that no matter what Pacquiao opponents do in training to prepare to absorb Pacman’s power, it’s altogether a different matter when the Pacquiao punches actually connect in the ring.
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Even if Clottey survives and keeps intact his reputation of not being knocked out, there will be just too many punches to contend with.
He is facing a Pacquiao who is at the peak of his skills, who no longer simply looks for the KO ASAP but builds for it with power blows that gradually pulverize the opponent.
Clottey, nevertheless, has one chance.
He is the underdog here challenging Pacquiao for his welterweight title.
Unlike our prediction that Clottey would be better known in the buildup going into this fight, he has remained virtually unheralded.
He’s not a talker, save for a few choice barbs against Freddie Roach and about sending Pacquiao to the hospital after the fight.
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Maybe, just maybe, a huge Clottey punch could nail Pacquiao and change the fight completely. His relative anonymity might be his strongest asset, in the same way Pacquiao came to Texas almost a decade ago to pound Marco Antonio Barrera in one of boxing’s most stunning upsets.
But again, Clottey is no Pacquiao. He’ll have to set up for that shot and by then, Pacquiao would already have an advantage of at least three punches to one in every exchange.
