What can Clottey do to beat Pacquiao?
March 12th, 2010
By Jason Kim: Former IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey has always been known as a tough fighter because of his power, speed and his ability to rough up his opponents during the course of a bout. However, as good as Clottey is, he’s limited in that he fights in spurts, and spends a lot of time covering up or laying on the ropes. Freddie Roach, the trainer for Manny Pacquiao, has noticed Clottey’s many flaws and has pointed them out. If Clottey is to beat Pacquiao, he’s going to have to spend more time throwing punches and less time focusing on defense.
He’s going to throw and move to the outside. The way that Pacquiao will attack hard for a sustained period of time is if he can hurt Clottey and have him feeling like Miguel Cotto was in his 12th round knockout loss to Pacquiao in November. Pacquiao fought in short attacks against Cotto until he had him hurt and running. Once that happened, Pacquiao began attacking Cotto with more and more punches without letting up.
Clottey has to make sure he’s not just covering up and looking to wait until Pacquiao stops punching. That won’t work for him, and Roach even knows it won’t. Pacquiao will back away once he’s landed his shots, so that when Clottey comes out of his clamshell defense to try and throw some shots, Pacquiao won’t be there for him.
If Clottey is to land at all, he needs to be punching while he’s under attack by Pacquiao. He’s got to try and counter punch or at the very least, just throw punches when Pacquiao is throwing. It could end up as a brawl, but I feel that Clottey stands a much better chance of fighting like this than he will if he just covers up for long periods of time while Pacquiao lambasts him with shots.
Roach knows how to get around Clottey’s high guard by having Pacquiao hook all the way around it to get to the side of Clottey’s head which he doesn’t do quite a good job of covering up. Clottey could end up as mincemeat if he sticks to just covering up like that, because it appears that Pacquiao, with Roach’s training, knows how to get around Clottey’s guard to land.
That tells me that it’s a waste of effort for Clottey to even bother with his defensive focus. He needs to do something completely different for this fight by going on the attack and trying to use his size and strength to impose his will on the smaller Pacquiao. Clottey could actually discover that he’s a lot stronger than Pacquiao in the process if he goes after him. Clottey has been fighting bigger welterweights during his career, and by fighting Pacquiao, who at best will be 147 come fight night, Clottey will be facing a smaller guy than what he’s become accustomed to fighting.
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A few hours away and we will all know then won’t we….gonna be a good one, hope all enjoy
Clottey should fight like it’s the last fight of his life, or the first, which ever is more important.
In other words, he has everything to gain & little to lose so he better fight like it.
I don’t know what strategies or techniques Clottey has done. We will know in a few hours!!! YEHEY!!!!
I don’t think Joshua ‘can’ do any of the following, but it’s certainly what he ‘must’ do:
Cut off the ring – take away Manny’s mobility.
Let his hands go – he needs to be the first and last punch in every exchange.
If he utilizes his high guard shell as he typically has – forget it, fight’s done. That style simply lets Manny get into a rhythm.
Clottey’s often been mentioned in the same sentence as his more famous countryman, Ike Quartey.
But that’s about as far as the comparison goes. Ike also favored a high guard, but he had his famous piston jab (one of the best I’ve ever seen) that he used with great success to dicate the pace of his fights. He would stalk opponents around the ring, pumping heavy jab after heavy jab into their faces, throwing them off their rhythms, and making them hesitate to throw their own punches.
Unfortunately for Joshua, he has a very limited offense. If he had Ike’s jab or something similar, he could very easily win this fight. But in all honesty, besides the fact that he’s also a Top Rank fighter, Joshua was chosen as an opponent because styles not only make fights, but his shell defense style makes Manny LOOK good winning. This has ‘highlight reel footage’ written all over it.
Clottey can score the upset if he reads this article
There are many many pilipino pacnutlicjers posting here. They are buffoons as CLottey will KO their lumpia boy in 4 rounds. The pilipinas prefer black men , i Know this to be true.
What about let your hands go instead of laying on the ropes or crying about hand injuries that were fake.
Trying to hook around Clottey’s guard, is not a new tactic. Zab Juhad tried to do the same. Zab has hands just as fast, if not faster than Manny. He also has good power. In the center of the ring, that will not be effective, against JC.
Those hooks will leave Pac open to straight right hands all night, as he does not have any real defense. Clottey does not have slow hand speed. Any fighter who can land a triple left hook, and follow with a straight right hand, is not slow. Especially, when he lands those types of combinations, on fighter as quick as Zab Judah. Manny will have to risk getting hit to land anything, and he not very elusive. So, if JC starts landing those types of shots, consistently, we will see a very different fight.
In that Judah fight, it was stopped after a bad cut, caused by a single well placed uppercut from Clottey. That was not a lucky punch, he lands it quite often. So, this fight could very well be stopped on a cut.
@ IKE
then pac beats him down for 12 long rounds
That is the most illogical thing for Clottey to do. To brawl with the faster, more mobile Pacquiao. He’ll get outgunned. And that takes away his best attribute, his defense.
It’s good to throw punches but it’s much better for you not to get hit. You can throw and miss whiles every punch that hits you causes damage and takes energy from you. You also expose yourself by punching recklessly. Boxing is about, hit and don’t be hit, not out-throw your opponent.
He needs to do what he does normally, fight at a sustained, controlled pace but keep Pac on the backfoot all the time. Look to be efficient with his punches and slow Pac down by going to the body and weakening him in the first six rounds. Then take over the fight by the 7th round.
It’s like I’ve asked before what will happen if Pacquiao lands his best shots and Clottey keeps coming?
Joshua will win with a knock-out
Manny does get tired, but he can take rest during the rounds similar to what he did when he was leaning on the ropes during the Cotto fight while Cotto was hitting him. It’s kind of like a strategic style of getting rest during the fight, and he did that well against Cotto. Clottey claims he will maintain pressure the entire fight, and I think that would be a good idea, and actually that’s what Hatton tried to do in his fight against him only he didn’t bother to keep his guard up. Inorder for Clottey to slow Pacquiao down he’ll have to take on a Hopkins styled approach of rough house boxing, basically alot of clinching, and pushing Pacquiao around to tire him out. He will also have to keep it a inside fight, and try to cut off the ring. If Clottey does all those things and comes in the ring well conditioned we will see a huge upset.
Clottey is a more defensive aware fighter than Cotto is he won’t just stand and trade. I think this all comes down to if Clottey can handle the power, I think if he can, then we could be looking at re-run of Hopkins Vs Trinidad. I think if Cotto had the chin of a Clottey he would of won his fight with Pacquiao, because he had the speed and ability to out land Pacquiao, but when his chin finally got tested it failed and he had to run the rest of the fight. I don’t know if people would agree with me but in my opinion after seeing alot of Cotto’s fights he doesn’t have the kind of chin that is needed to be an all-time great, I’ve seen him hurt by B class fighters. Clottey has one of the best chins in boxing, so all he has to do is throw punches; Pacquiao is not that hard to hit. The problem is that Clottey has a history of not throwing punches down the stretch, and that could cost him the biggest fight of his career.
Manny is very deceptive. When he punches you he knows when and when not to throw at 100%. At the start of his fights he baits you to follow him. Soon as you get comfortable he picks up both the pace and his punching power. I feel that you need to stay on the inside with Manny. I noticed that everytime he and cotto clinched he turned towards the ref. He does not want to fight on the inside. If Clottey can switch it up and keep Manny close he could wear him down. If he follows Manny around the ring and keeps it on the outside, he could get ktfo. Manny is a beast but if Clottey fights him like he’s in a phone booth its going to be an interesting fight.
By not being too FRIENDLY.
Clottey if u fight Manny from start to finish, Clottey will win no question. Clottey it’s ur time, Joshua Clottey WBO W.W Champion of the world.
Another thing Freddie Roach isn’t the best trainer out there now. He’s in the top 3, best trainer of the year.
Pacquiao should study the video of the Clottey-Zab Judah fight, so he’ll know how to avoid those “accidental” headbutts that bloodied Judah that eventually weakened him. Clottey knows only too well that Pacquiao doesn’t fight well when he gets cut. Pacquiao-Marquez II proved that. Still, the PacMan will win this one…if he doesn’t get hurt bad. Be on the lookout for headbutts, Manny!
jazzy,
as if ur trying to say that ur full of wisdom, how could dat be when u don’t even know how to use simple and basic english words properly?
anyway, let’s just wait and see who lacks wisdom come figth night.
I totally agree that Clotty needs to fight a different fight in this one. He has to up his work rate against Pac man. If he thinks he will wear him down by covering up and only working in spurts he has a shock coming because Manny will not tire. Manny will be relentless and if Clotty has any chance he must try to command centre ring and counter, but not just stop there, but throw punches in bunches. I am not sure Clotty has the stamina to do this.. If he does, why didn’t he do it in previous fights???
it will be a good fight.. I have it 50-50???
Guys, you’ve nothing to worry about. Clottey knows where he went wrong in his previous fights. As good as Pacquiao is, he is not an ellusive fighter as compared to clottey’s previous foes notably, zab judah. Even if clottey resorts to his normal style, i highly believe he will still win. Clottey stood in the corner for only ONCE in the cotto fight, while cotto unleashed series of punches. This has been what eveybody is talking about him not throwing enough punches. He was ahead on the compubox with cotto mind you, he was leading on all cards with zab judah, he outpointed coralles, he was again ahead on all cards against Baldomir, before the 11th round disqualification due to an alleged head butt, and finally, he was clearly aheard before he injured both hands against Margarito. So tell me, are you still insisting that he his slow? Coralles(may his soul rest in peace) after the fight, in an interview said, clottey is faster than he had initially taught. There is no wayout now, Manny WILL be dethroned
to bbull, keep dreaming. I know clottey is your biggest nightmare.All u have to do is pray very hard, so thatyour SUPER HUMAN PAC wouldn’t be hospitalised.
The plan is simple for clottey, get on the inside and rough pacquiao up. Yes he’s going to have to take some shots but that’s boxing. I really believe clottey will get close to manny and stay there. If you’ve noticed lately as good a puncher asanny has been, he does not fight on the inside as much as he used too, now it’s throw your combinations and move. Clottey is going to have to muscle manny on the inside, using all the tactics associated with dirty boxing, clinching, laying on him, an ocassional headbutt, elbows, forearms, shoulders, you get the picture. I haven’t seen many of clotteys fights, but the fights I’ve seen him in, he always draws blood from his opponents. If he can cut manny, especially early in the fight, I believe it’s over for manny. I for one believe manny I squeamish about blood loss, because in some of his battles against Marquez, and barrera he’s definately not the same fighter after he’s been cut. The one thing clottey can’t do is what he said he’d going to do, take 10 just to land 4, that won’t CUT it!
Speed kills mannys too fast and has power.Clottey will say the same as all before couldnt see the shots coming
the only i can say is, God Bless for both of them ( manny and clottey)
@ jazzy- well, anything can happen as clottey is also a 2 fisted man..but all credit to pacquiao because whatever the risk, he would always take any given challenges whether a win or loss..
Pray.
Guys, you’ve nothing to worry about. Clottey knows where he went wrong in his previous fights. As good as Pacquiao is, he is not an ellusive fighter as compared to clottey’s previous foes notably, zab judah. Even if clottey resorts to his normal style, i highly believe he will still win. Clottey stood in the corner for only ONCE in the cotto fight, while cotto unleashed series of punches. This has been what eveybody is talking about him not throwing enough punches. He was ahead on the compubox with cotto mind you, he was leading on all cards with zab judah, he outpointed coralles, he was again ahead on all cards against Baldomir, before the 11th round disqualification due to an alleged head butt, and finally, he was clearly aheard before he injured both hands against Margarito. So tell me, are you still insisting that he his slow? Coralles(may his soul rest in peace) after the fight, in an interview said, clottey is faster than he had initially taught. There is no wayout now, Manny WILL be dethroned.
Guys, you’ve nothing to worry about. clottey knows where he went wrong in his previous fights. As good as Pacquiao is, he is not an ellusive fighter as compared to clottey’s previous foes notably, zab judah. Even if clottey resorts to his normal style, i highly believe he will still win. Clottey stood in the corner for only ONCE in the cotto fight, while cotto unleashed series of punches. This has been what eveybody is talking about him not throwing enough punches. He was ahead on the compubox with cotto mind you, he was leading on all cards with zab judah, he outpointed coralles, he was again ahead on cards against Baldomir, and finally, clearly aheard before he injured both hands against Margarito. So tell me, are you still insisting that he his slow? Coralles(may his soul rest in peace) after the fight, in an interview said, clottey is faster than he had initially taught. There is no wayout now, Manny WILL be dethroned.
Good article. I agree that Clottey needs to surprise the PacMan to win. He has to me more offensive focused, maybe beat PacMan at his own game, make it a brawl, that way Clottey size advantage may tell, that’s his best chance. I like PacMan he is an exciting fighter, I just feel Clottey can win this if he does the above mention by the writer, I would think it a bad decision if he adopts to his peak aboo style againgst PacMan. We shall see….