By Dave Lahr: In case people haven’t noticed, there’s a little over a week to go before the Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey fight and everyone is talking about the May 1st fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley. If it wasn’t so sad it would be hilarious. The Mayweather fight won’t be taking place for months, yet it’s all that’s being talked about. I know there’s a lesson in here somewhere. The Mayweather vs. Mosley fight is a true super fight, whereas the Pacquiao-Clottey is just a mismatch any way you look it.
And to think that fight is going to be taking place in the huge Dallas Cowboy Stadium. You got a huge stadium for a mismatch fight. I don’t how they could even sell this fight. Clottey is someone that few people have heard of, and this is what happens when you take on a small named fighter instead of standing up going for Mayweather or Shane Mosley.
Mayweather is doing a bang up job of promoting his fight with Mosley in the past week. In contrast, I don’t hear a peep from Clottey or Pacquiao. When I do read stuff from them, they’re saying nothing but a bunch of nice stuff, just praising one another back and forth. Clottey can’t stop saying how happy he is to have been selected for the fight.
It’s like Clottey has been brought in to lose. He has no trainer, and I don’t see anyone busting their backsides to make sure he has one. It’s a fight where Top Rank, who promotes both Pacquiao and Clottey, will do well and make a killing in this fight. But it’s not going to compare to the numbers that the Mayweather vs. Mosley fight puts in. I just don’t see much interest in this fight. Even if Arum put a ton of money into advertising for this fight, people probably still won’t care.
Unless you’re a big Pacquiao fan, there’s little reason to watch the Pacquiao-Clottey fight. You know who’s going to win. Clottey is a slow fighter, doesn’t throw many punches, fades early, has no right hand, doesn’t move his head and covers up most of the time. It’s going to be like watching an execution rather than a boxing match.
Comments are closed.