Clottey Danced The Fight Away

As usual, time stood still for the Filipinos yesterday. Streets were half-empty. Even the church was not as full as in other ordinary Sundays. Yesterday was nothing ordinary at all, our Pambansang Kamao Manny Pacquiao was slated to fight Joshua Clottey at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium - hailed as the greatest stadium on earth- in Texas. At stake in the fight which was dubbed "The Event" was the Pacman's WBO welterweight crown. That was Manny's first title defense.

Joshua Clottey (35-4, 20 knockouts), a 32-year old Ghanian, promised to "shock the world". Although Clottey was clearly the underdog in "The Event", many boxing fans were expecting a great fight since Clottey is a talented boxer. He even won the IBF welterweight title in 2008. Would Clottey be "Cottoed" or "Hatttoned"? - that was the prevailing question in everyone's mind.

Yesterday, Filipino boxing fans were happy over Pacquiao's unanimous decision win over Clottey in 12 rounds but everybody was sorely disappointed if not frustrated with Clottey's fighting style. Instead of trading punches with Pacman, Clottey was defensively covering his head most of the time. His own trainer Lenny de Jesus even had to plead and encourage him to attack and throw more punches.



Manny Pacquiao spoke respectfully about Clottey's defense but Trainer Freddie Roach said "If you don't have the guts to take it and you just want to survive, well...
Why not go for it and put it all on the line? I'm frustrated that he didn't try to win the fight." In Cebu, majority of the people say that the fight was BORING. ("Boring kaayo ang duwa.") Clottey was totally outclassed in that fight. As one sportswriter put it, "Clottey came not for his 39th fight but to collect his biggest paycheck ever..."

Now, bring on Floyd Mayweather, Jr!