LONDON—Nothing personal but I’m hoping that Joshua Clottey doesn’t get the Vanquished Opponent, red carpet treatment from Manny Pacquiao.
Unlike past foes who the Pinoy Idol defeated, the Ghanaian who resides in The Bronx did nothing to merit such gracious and first class Pinoy hospitality.
No free roundtrip tickets to Manila or Gensan. No commercial opportunities. No invites to the next Manny Pacquiao birthday party.
I mean, really, Clottey was so lacking in aggression against Megamanny on March 13 in Cowboys Stadium that he almost threw a wet blanket all over the great public party enjoyed by 51,000 fans in the super stadium.
Clottey’s refusal to engage would earn him a court martial and maybe worse if he was a soldier.
It should have brought prodding, then rebukes and then an explicit threat to withhold some or all of his $1.2 million purse from referee Rafael Ramos.
Biggest cover up since Watergate burglary as Clottey declines to engage (Top Rank, Chris Farina Photo)
But it didn’t and burns in my craw who Clottey, a likeable enough chap, continues to get a free pass for a sorry peformance.
Compare and contract how outsized and outsped Juan Manuel Marquez at least gamely tried to fight dashing, dancing and shoulder rolling Floyd Mayweather.
Come May 1, compare and contrast how I’m convinced Sugar Shane Mosley will do the same against the heavily favored Mayweather.
Juan Ma was ineffective for all 12 rounds but at least we saw him give it the old college try.
Menacing Charles “Sonny” Liston destroyed Floyd Patter TWICE in one round, causing Patterson to appear in public in mufti (AP Photo)
All that prefight blather from Clottey was just hot air amounting to zero on fight night.
I got to thinking about how former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson and his sense of embarrassment and his wounded pride after one of his two first round KO losses to the brutally punching machine that was Charles “Sonny” Liston.
Patterson, when he went out in public, worse disguises, employing a big hat, dark glasses and even a fake mustache.
Patterson, a noble fighter and undersized heavyweight, did not want boxing fans to mock or ridicule him.
There was shame in Patterson’s game although he had no reason for it.
Floyd went out on his shield…twice against the Big Ugly Bear.
In Clottey, we’ve seen no sense of professionalism, no admission of a disgraceful lack of performance, only a guy clutching for the biggest payday of his career.
Me, I will take Patterson over Clottey any day.
If Clottey goes to the Philippines, which I highly doubt, it should be on a slow boat.
Maybe that would give him to to reflect on how he tried to stink out a fight that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones paid $7 million for.
Joshua Clottey, truth be told, just took his money and ran.
