Pacquiao vs Clottey Breakdown
Written by Smitty It seems almost odd that Manny Pacquiao, just days away from a big fight, is not here in Las Vegas undergoing final pre fight preparation at Tony Rila’s IBA Gym, with us at IN THIS CORNER having our usual private exclusive chats with Manny and his trainer Freddie Roach. They both have become very good friends of our TV show over the last six years. As I sit down to write this breakdown of this weekend’s fight between Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey, Comcast West and Sportstime Ohio (via DirecTV, Dish Network, Comcast and various other Cable outlets) are airing a special preview show we put together for this fight. Very interesting to watch the evolution of Manny Pacquiao over these past six years and we have truly had a ringside seat. Unlike Floyd Mayweather (yet), I have actually been inside the squared circle with this two- fisted Juggernaut. I also have some history with Joshua Clottey calling a few of his fights on TV years ago and actually forecasting after he defeated Christopher Henry with a 5th round TKO in the summer of 2004 in Laughlin, Nevada, that he may very well one day become a World Champion. Clottey watched a replay of my call of that Henry fight and, having never forgotten my prediction, when he defeated Zab Judah in August of 2008 to win the IBF Welterweight Title at the Palms Casino he thanked me for believing in him. So I have plenty of goods on and good will with both of these guys so a breakdown is not too difficult. Gonna do this one a bit different and actually give my prediction up front, rather than dissecting everything and then giving my pick at the end. My pick to win this fight, Manny Pacquiao via unanimous decision. Big Surprise right? That is just about everybody’s pick. In fact the only person I know who is truly picking Clottey is my son Ryan who also serves as V.P. of Sales and Marketing for IN THIS CORNER, and Ryan does know a thing or two about the Sweet Science, or at least I hope so. He does come from some form of pugilistic pedigree! So since we all know what Manny can do, let’s try and figure out why Ryan thinks Clottey can pull of what would be a huge upset over the hottest fighter in the sport and the man considered by most the best pure fighter in the world today. Most importantly, what Clottey must do is fight every minute of every round; his worst habit is that sometimes he does just enough to lose. We saw this in both of his most recent losses, first against Antonio Margarito and then in his controversial split decision loss to Miguel Cotto that propelled Cotto into the showdown with Manny. A couple of quick notes regarding both those losses, against Margarito, a fight in 2006, Clottey was winning until he claims he injured his left hand in round 4, thus letting Margarito get back into the fight. In the Cotto fight, to be honest, I think Clottey actually won the fight by a point or two, but outside of scoring he did not deserve the win on the merits, or lack thereof, in his performance during many of the later rounds. All Clottey had to do was step it up and he would have stopped Cotto, who appeared ready to go on a number of occasions and had the terrible eye cuts and swelling. Thus we note the Joshua Clottey Achilles heal. He is too patient, he is too steady which kind of reminds me of another fighter from Accra Ghana, no not ‘The Professor’ Azuma Nelson, but I’m referring to Ike ‘Bazooka’ Quartey. Quartey could perform and was brilliant at times but I also saw him coast during his all four of his losses against Oscar De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas, Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright. If Ike had gone full throttle in all of those fights he certainly would have pulled out a few of them and particularly the De La Hoya fight where Oscar sealed the deal in the 12th and final round getting Quartey against the ropes and doing his version of the shoe shine and winning the fight. Maybe Quartey and maybe Clottey just don’t have a third and fourth gear physically, but I think it is more of a mental thing a mind set of consistency that makes them very good, but does it ultimately prevent them from greatness? Clottey has some weapons that can be very effective on Saturday night in Big D against the Pacman. First off, yes you got it, his jab; he’ll posses at least a 3-inch reach advantage and a bit of a height advantage. The Clottey jab is stiff, powerful and accurate and, if thrown to Manny’s chest when the Pac Man is jumping in and out at his is know to do, could keep Manny off balance and he won’t be able to get in all those crazy angle shots that he landed so effectively against Ricky Hatton and Cotto. Punches they never saw coming and thus punches that undid them both. Clottey has good balance most of the time and his defense is very, very good. Even if Manny can get Clottey a bit out of position the Clottey defense should pick off most of the shots. Most I said. Clottey punches well to the body, something that nobody seems to attempt to exploit against Manny as he is all over the place, but it is something that bigger guys like Clottey should attempt early to slow Manny down, much like Bernard Hopkins did against Oscar and remember it was a body shot in round 9, the round I predicted, that eventually did the Golden Boy in. Clottey should work hard to get inside, go to the body and then come up with uppercuts. Clottey can throw multiple uppercuts with both hands, and Cotto had some success snapping Pacquiao’s head back several times with uppercuts. Joshua has a really good beard, I have never really seen him hurt. Frustrated yes but not hurt. He better not get frustrated with Manny, who seems to be able to fluster all of his opponents these days. Clottey will clearly be the biggest and the strongest guy Manny has ever faced. He is a bit larger and I think much stronger than Cotto and takes a much better shot than Miguel. I know your saying, “But Cotto beat Clottey.” Cotto won the fight but more because Clottey gave that fight away as I stated earlier. Usually fighters don’t change their stripes or true colors in their first megafight. So the most likely scenario is Manny winning a decision. One possible other scenario is a letdown, letdown on the part of Manny Pacquiao. He is due for a sub par performance isn’t he? If either of these situations come into play and Clottey fights above and beyond what he ever has, maybe my son Ryan will be the hero with his pick of Clottey. Sorry Ryan I go with Pacquiao by decision. |
