Pacquiao-Clottey: A Fight for the Fans
March 15th, 2010
By Alexander Fugate: All we have heard from Roach since him and Pacquiao walked away from a fight with Mayweather and signed to face Clottey is how it will be a good fight and a more exciting fight for the fans than a fight with Mayweather. It seems like whenever Roach was actually talking about Pacquiao’s bout with Clottey and not talking about Mayweather, he told us that Pacquiao fights for the fans and that his fight with Clottey would be exciting and we should be happy that Pacquiao was facing Clottey and not Mayweather.
Was all that talk about an exciting fight simply a ploy to promote the fight? If so, it may have led more people to buy Saturday night’s PPV, but it could backfire if Manny fights another B level fighter or anyone without a large fan following. There are many that heard Roach proclaim how exciting the match would be and there will be many who remember this next time Pacquiao fights. If he faces the winner of Mayweather-Mosley it won’t matter because that’s the fight the fans want to see. But if he faces Margarito or Yuri Foreman than Roach’s continuous talk to hype up Pacquiao-Clottey could backfire and lower his next fight’s PPV buys. Casual fans simply won’t want to pay to see a repeat of last night and another unfamiliar name that is a big underdog could lead many to expect the same and decide to save their $50.
Back on January 10th right after Clottey was named as Pacquiao’s next opponent an article ran in GMA News that reported, “Roach said Clottey…is one guy who loves to mix it up engages in toe-to-toe action.” Roach was quoted in that article saying, “I wanted Manny in an action fight, and that’s what we got with Clottey.” Ten days later on January 20th Roach told fighthype.com “This is a much better fight for the fans…’” compared to a Mayweather-Pacquiao match-up. On January 24th Brad Cooney of Examiner.com ran a story that read “He (Roach) even says that the fight against Clottey will be a more exciting fight than a fight with Mayweather” and then quoted Roach saying, “’Unlike Mayweather, Clottey will stand and fight and not run. This is a competitive fight, and it won’t be a boring one.” On February 11th in an interview with Fightfan.com Roach said, “its (the Pacquiao-Clottey fight) will be really, really exciting…” Roach continued to reiterate this all the way up to the fight.
Despite Roach constantly being very vocal about how boring a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would be, that is what the public wants to see. Also noteworthy is the fact that the public made Mayweather’s fight with De La Hoya the biggest grossing boxing fight ever and also set a record for most PPV buys. Mayweather-Hatton had over 900,000 domestic PPV buys and over one million in the UK. Then Mayweather-Marquez greatly surpassed expectations getting over a million domestic PPV buys. Roach can say Mayweather fights are boring all he wants but as long as Mayweather continues to be the biggest draw in boxing, than its obvious the public and fans disagree with him.
Almost everyone seems to be in unison that Pacquiao-Clottey was a terribly boring fight, with even worse undercard fights. With Roach’s loquaciousness about how Clottey would be a more exciting fight than Mayweather, and Manny often stating how he fights for the fans, the only logical conclusions are: 1)Roach and Manny thought Clottey would suddenly change his style after all these years or 2) Roach and Manny don’t understand or comprehend that fans enjoy watching the best fight the best. Most could care less if Manny throws 100 punches per round if he can’t land anything meaningful above his opponents stomach and his opponent only throws 33 punches a round. Hopefully, all the negative feedback regarding the excitement of Pacquiao-Clottey will lead to Pacquiao taking on the top echelon of welterweights.
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why you remove p[pls comments you the gustapo are something?
Clottey did’t engage in the fight simply because Manny pressure him not to do so. he didn’t cope up the barage of punches he is getting and definitely he will fall down if he didn’t cover. Just watch clottey previous fight he used to engage in exchange because he is not tht pressure as what Manny does.
hey fugate im giving you a headsup, your daddy money mayweather made some IDITIOC (just like your blogs) comments on some website, you better pick it up right away or your buddies lahr, williams, garduno will beat you to it. GO GO !!!…
..
idiot
Clottey was unknown for a reason, he’s not that good.
Stu, Pacquaio holds a meaningless paper title at welterweight. When he knocked out Hatton, he won the lineal and The Ring 140 title. At welter, he’s one of many paper beltholders, and The Ring currently has Clottey rated as the #6 welter in the world. At 140, he’s the real champ, and Bradley is his #1 contender. The Ring approached Pac about vacating the 140 strap because he has yet to defend it. Pac told them he wanted to keep the title, and that he would be defending it. If Pac wasn’t gonna fight a superfight, he should have defended his real title against the #1 contender, and that’s Bradley. Go to The Ring’s website, which is ringtv.com, and you’ll be able to look up the most legitimate ratings in boxing today.
that is the last pacman match people will buy. people will not pay to see him beat loosers of matches anymore. hatton, delahoya, cotto, clottey. all had come off loses b4 facin pacman. pacman needs to start matchin up with the winners of matches not the loosers. i dont care who he matches up with. dont need to be floyd but cant be antonio who was destroyed by mosley. people will not watch. public is fooled no more. step in with the best. at 140 if he wont match up with floyd mosley or pw. no more of this class b welt set ups. abrum is killin that boys carear.
hitking:
bradley isn’t pac’s no.1 contender. he isn’t rated at all at welter. the no.1 contender for pac’s title was clottey.
Mike, Clottey lost his last fight to the guy Pac KTFO in his last fight. There’s no way Pac thought this was the most competitive fight available to him. The Ring recently approached Pac about vacating the 140 title, and he told them he wanted to keep it and defend it. I have no problem with the Mayweather negotiations falling apart. I have no problem with other superfights with a Mosley or a Marquez not being available to him. But if Pac wants to keep the 140 strap, why not defend that title last Saturday night against his #1 contender Timothy Bradley. Bradley is undefeated, and a lot of people consider him a fringe elite looking to break through. Pacquaio-Bradley would have been a much better match-up than Pacquaio-Clottey.
You have your facts wrong. “Pacquiao honestly thought Clottey would fight any differently than he did last night, than they either never watched Clottey fight”. I’ve seen Clottey’s previous fights – all of them were competitive. Is there knowledgeable writer on this site???
It seems like the Pactards are overly excited about this win. Stating that Mayweather-Pacquaio would be similar. That is crazy. Clottey is good defensively. But, his defense doesn’t transfer into offense. Clottey simply covers up and waits for his opponent to stop punching, then he tries to stalk them. Mayweather makes his opponents miss, then he makes them pay. Mayweather is by far the best counterpuncher in the game. Pac can’t be as active against Mayweather because he’ll open himself to be countered to hell and back. Truth is, Pac’s last two fights have made me give him even less of a chance against Mayweather. He’s walked away from each fight with his face busted up, and even suffered a busted eardrum against Cotto. The question people should be asking is, if slow handed fighters like Cotto and Clottey were able to land at will on Pac, what will a fast handed guy like Mayweather do to him?
jingles please explain to me as to why Floyd would be afraid of Manny? Let’s look at Floyd’s analysis on fighting Mosley…”Mosley has already been beaten so there is a blueprint to beat him” Now lets change the players and it reads like this “Pac has already been beaten so there is a blueprint to beat him” Do you see my point here? Floyd in all his confidence is not concerned with someone who has already lost because as the best in the game..his mentality is “if such and such can beat Pac/Mosley, I can beat them because I am the best in the game” That is how Floyd thinks so to say that he is afraid of Pac is ridiculous.
It was so one sided but it wasn’t Manny’s fault. And I believe strongly that a Pacman vs. Mayweather fight would look the same…
Pacquiao won’t fight Mayweather until he’s ready to give up his P4P crown.
You can say what ever you want but if you miss anything close to 1,000 punches against Mayweather one of your eyes will closed the f*ck up.
i still believe that floyd doesn’t want or should i say is afraid to fight pacman. sure thing, floyd will BE KO’d by the pacman
Freddie and Bob THOUGHT that Clottey would be an exciting fighter. He’s tough. A lot of writers here in boxingnews24 said that Clottey will destroy Manny. But they didn’t take into account that sometime between signing the contract and fight night, Clottey lost his balls. And just clammed up!
It was a boring fight. But no one can say that Manny didn’t work for his check! He tried everything but couldn’t get any openings.
@dayyammmm
You should look at the events leading up to the matches. It’s not like Pacquiao is avoiding Floyd or Mayweather because he verbally told that he wants to fight the winner of the upcoming fight between the 2.
As you can see, he cannot fight all this boxers at the same time. Eventually, he needs to choose first who is feasible on that time.
After beating Hatton, Cotto was the most feasible fight after winning against Clottey. Why, because Cotto has the belt while Mosley hasn’t. Mosley dosn’t have the belt yet. And Arum already planned a match for pacquiao against whoever wins in the Clottey vs. Cotto fight. That’s the reason why Arum invited Pacquiao to watcth the fight. And it’s easy to create the match because all fighters are under Top Rank. That’s the side of business you know.
Again, after the Mayweather-Paqcuiao failed, Arum hurriedly found another fighter because the planned date is nearing and probably, in Arum’s disgust with Mayweather wants to show that they don’t need Mayweather and what better way to search for but in your own backyard.
When they announced that it was Clottey, The Mosley-Berto fight was not yet cancelled. If it was cancelled earlier than that, I guess they would chase for Mosley fight.
So Mayweather was left with no dancing partner and he was left to find an opponent that would upstage the Pacquiao-Clottey fight.
I know there are lots of possible matchupst that would upstage it, like Williams, but the question is would Mayweather fight them. I guess not.
Since Mosley-Berto was cancelled, a possible earnings for the DLH promotion is on the brink so what’s the wisest decision for DLH but to push for this one, and I know that this can definitely upstage the pacquiao-clottey fight. It’s a wise decision indeed.
Now, I would love to see Mosley win so the Mayweather hoopla will end. Besides, I know the Mosley-Pacquiao fight is more exciting than a fight with Mayweather. Even I’m a pacman fan, I give Mosley a chance of beating pacman. This is surely not a walk-in-the-park for pacman.
Pacman really good fighter, not only because of his speed and power, but also brave to face bigger opponent who are naturally at that weight. Mayweather….has he fought bigger opponent…how many times…
Clottey was fighting scared. It showed in his face at the start of the fight. What separate Clottey from Mayweather is that he was brave enough to face Pacquiao no matter what the outcome. I cannot blame Pacquiao for that kind of a fight. He did his best. A brilliant show of power and talent. But Clottey was not responding, he was fighting scared. Well what could you expect when you face the best boxer this days.
To answer your question, Shane Mosley.
Consensus #1 welterweight, consensus #3 P4P fighter, highly regarded, last fight was a complete demolition of Antonio Margarito.
And why isn’t Manny fighting him?
Because Shane Mosley refused to be handicapped by Pac and Roach into more catchweight nonsense, like they did with Miguel Cotto. Can you actually believe they wanted Shane to starve down to 142 to fight?
Oh and guess who’s fighting Shane?
Floyd Mayweather.
You fail.
what about the international. pacquiao has 100000 million Filipino watching him in the Philippines and there are 5million who watched at the theater. and it worth 20dollars Dumas..
try to total your ppv buys with any of your fighter
and don’t under estimate pacquiao international name. he got the whole Asia backing him.
do you wanna have war with china?
china will whoop you
floyd only got USA.
I figured Pacman would win easy but expected much more pressure out of Clottey. I’d like to see Clottey rematch Margarito, that was a very close brawl. I still think Moseley is going to be tough for Mayweather because he’s stronger and has a good jab…could come down to his stamina though. Like everyone I’d prefer Pac v. Money but the better “action” fight would definately be Moseley because he likes to mix it up…Pacman beats either guy though, he’s a wreckin machine right now. Even FLoyd’s defense can’t hold off that much speed and power.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION ONE SIDED PERSON.
@ Lex
Who’s the top echelon of welterweights right now?
And why he is not fighting Manny instead of Manny fighting him?
Is there any one in WW that’s far better than Manny? If so, will he be willing to fight Manny then?
Or would he just say…”My sports is a clean sports blah…blah…blah…”
Roach was selling the fight, there is no way he believed it would be a great fight. He sold me on it though and I was convinced that Clottey would make it entertaining. I have learned my lesson. I never saw Roach as a Arum cronie but ever since Arum slapped him down in public over his comments about Manny taking a blood test “…as long as there is a cut off a few days before the fight…”, he has just become a company man. Sad to see really because Roach is one of the most entertaining personalities in the sport.
Anyone who actually thinks Mayweather is boring just isn’t a boxing fan. He is amazing to watch. Pac Man is amazing to watch. That is why the fight HAS to happen, even though I know it won’t as long as Arum is involved.